Outpatient Antibiotic Prescriptions — United States, 2013

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Healthcare providers prescribed 268.6 million antibiotic prescriptions—equivalent to 849 antibiotic prescriptions per 1000 persons.

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Citation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Outpatient antibiotic prescriptions — United States, 2013.

Table 1. Oral antibiotic prescriptions by age and sex—United States, 2013.

Table 1a. Oral antibiotic prescriptions by age and sex—United States, 2013
Age group NUMBER OF ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS (MILLIONS) ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS PER 1,000 PERSONS, RATE
<20 yearsa 66.8 812
≥20 yearsa 197.5 843
Table 1b. Oral antibiotic prescriptions by age and sex—United States, 2013
Sex NUMBER OF ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS (MILLIONS)> ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS PER 1,000 PERSONS, RATE
Femalea 162.8 1,012
Malea 104.8 673
Table 1c. Oral antibiotic prescriptions by age and sex—United States, 2013
Region NUMBER OF ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS (MILLIONS)> ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS PER 1,000 PERSONS, RATE
Northeasta 49.0 874
Midwesta 61.0 902
Southa 111.7 942
Westa 47.0 631

aTotals may not add to all oral prescriptions (268.6 million) due to missing data.

Table 2. Top oral antibiotic classes and agents prescribed—United States, 2013.

Table 2a. Top oral antibiotic classes and agents prescribed—United States, 2013.
ANTIBIOTIC CLASS NUMBER OF ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS (MILLIONS) ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS (MILLIONS) PER 1,000 PERSONS, RATE
Penicillins 60.8 192
Macrolides 51.0 161
Cephalosporins 36.3 115
Quinolones 33.2 105
Beta-lactams, increased activity 23.1 73
Table 2b. Top oral antibiotic classes and agents prescribed—United States, 2013.
ANTIBIOTIC AGENT NUMBER OF ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS (MILLIONS) ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS (MILLIONS) PER 1,000 PERSONS, RATE
Amoxicillin 53.3 169
Azithromycin 47.2 149
Amoxicillin/clavulanic acid 23.1 73
Trimethoprimsulfamethoxazole 21.3 67
Ciprofloxacin 21.3 67
Cephalexin 21.2 67

Table 3. Oral antibiotic prescribing by provider specialty — United States, 2013.

Table 3. Oral antibiotic prescribing by provider specialty — United States, 2013.
PROVIDER SPECIALTY NUMBER OF ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS (MILLIONS) ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS PER PROVIDER, RATE
Primary Care Physicians 121.7 512
Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners 48.4 279
Dentistry 24.5 200
Surgical Specialties 20.3 228
Emergency Medicine 14.3 441
Dermatology 7.9 700
Obstetrics/Gynecology 6.8 182
Other 24.7 119
All Providers 268.6 295
Data Sources:

Systemic oral antibiotics were extracted from the IMS Health Xponent database. IMS Health captures >70% of outpatient prescriptions nationally, reconciles them to wholesale deliveries, and projects to 100% coverage. These data represent all outpatient antibiotic prescriptions from community pharmacies and non-governmental mail order pharmacies from all payers, but exclude federal facilities. Provider specialties are taken from the American Medical Association (AMA) self-designated practice specialties and categorized into one of 17 groups. Population data were obtained from the U.S. Census bridging files.

References

  1. Hicks, L.A., et al., US Outpatient Antibiotic Prescribing Variation According to Geography, Patient Population, and Provider Specialty in 2011. Clin Infect Dis, 2015. 60(9): p. 1308-16.
  2. IMS. The Uniform System of Classification (USC). [cited2015 September 22]

Figure 1. Antibiotic prescriptions per 1000 persons by state (sextiles) for all ages — United States, 2013.

Antibiotic prescriptions per 1000 persons by state (sextiles) for all ages US 2013 - Wa,Or,Ca, Co, NM, Vt =588 - 715 | Mt,Id,Wy,Nv, Mn, Wi, Me, NH, Fl = 724 - 779 | Ut, Az, Ma, Ri, Ct, GA = 812 - 882 | Tx, Ok, SD, Ia, Il, NY, NJ = 908 - 941 | Oh, Mi, Mo, Ks, Ne , ND = 963 - 1,024 | La, Ms, Al, Tn, Ky, WV, In = 1,049 - 1,338

This project was made possible through a partnership with the CDC Foundation. Support for this project was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Antibiotic prescriptions per 1000 persons by state (sextiles) for all ages — United States, 2013.
State Number of prescriptions per 1000 persons, Rate
Alabama        1,166
Alaska            509
Arizona            759
Arkansas        1,149
California            591
Colorado            632
Connecticut            845
Delaware            975
District Of Columbia        1,044
Florida            736
Georgia            871
Hawaii            648
Idaho            705
Illinois            858
Indiana            988
Iowa            971
Kansas            996
Kentucky        1,240
Louisiana        1,191
Maine            726
Maryland            813
Massachusetts            773
Michigan            931
Minnesota            707
Mississippi        1,224
Missouri            941
Montana            674
Nebraska        1,034
Nevada            717
New Hampshire            710
New Jersey            923
New Mexico            697
New York            905
North Carolina            901
North Dakota            877
Ohio            966
Oklahoma            967
Oregon            579
Pennsylvania            896
Rhode Island            900
South Carolina            965
South Dakota            893
Tennessee        1,190
Texas            916
Utah            813
Vermont            656
Virginia            833
Washington            608
West Virginia        1,274
Wisconsin            748
Wyoming            788
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