In recent years, the use of antibiotic among patients in U.S. hospitals in general has not changed at all, and the use of a few antibiotics, particularly broad spectrum agents, however, has significantly increased. This is according to the findings of recent research, published on JAMA Internal Medicine last Monday, Sept. 19, 2016.
For the research, researchers studied pediatric and adult antibiotic use between 2006 and 2012 in 300 participating acute care hospitals. Over 34 million hospitalized patients were dismissed over the six years period.
From 2006 up to 2012, 300 to 383 hospitals in the U.S. for each year contributed antibiotic data to Truven Health MarketScan Hospital Drug Database (HDD) and throughout those years, 55.1% of hospitalized patients obtained at least one dose of antibiotics during hospital visit, the study reported. Moreover, according to the research, the total national days of therapy (DOT) was 755 for every 1,000-patient -day.
"In some cases, providers might be unaware of treatment guidelines," lead researcher and CDC epidemiologist James Baggs remarked. "We also know that in many cases for hospitalized patients, antibiotics are started before all of the clinical information is available," he added.
Even though overall antibiotic use remained level in recent years, use of newer antibiotics increased notably, the study reported. Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School's department of health care policy, said via Fox News, "In the hospital, where the sickest patients are, there's been an increase in broad-spectrum antibiotics."
Wide-range antibiotics fight against a great array of bacteria. Those are large guns and with increased use of those antibiotics the problem is that that is leading to the bacteria that are largely resistant, according to Mehrotra.
"We've known for decades that there are too many antibiotics being used," Dr. Mehrotra said in a report at UPI. But doctors still give several patients antibiotics they do not necessarily need and even know that they are prescribing too many antibiotics, he continued. In response, the US government has created The National Strategy for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, which is a national strategy to fight antibiotic stewardship and resistance.
