Antibiotic prescribing in outpatients: a 1-week diagnosis-prescribing study in 5 counties in Sweden

A diagnosis-antibiotic prescribing study initiated by the Swedish Strategic Programme for the Rational Use of Antimicrobial Agents and Surveillance of Resistance was performed in 5 counties in Sweden (total 1,290,000 inhabitants) during 1 week in November 2000. The aims of the study were to analyse diagnoses and antibiotics prescribed for outpatients and to appraise the feasibility of the data collection method. Physicians in primary care and departments of ENT, paediatrics and infectious diseases completed a questionnaire for each patient with an infectious disease complaint, including information about age, sex, diagnosis, diagnostic methods used and treatment. When an antibiotic was prescribed, the type and duration of treatment were noted. A total of 7, 071 forms were returned, of which 7,029 included information on diagnosis; infections of the respiratory tract, urinary tract and the skin or soft tissues were responsible for 70%, 14% and 10% of the visits, respectively. Antibiotics were prescribed in 59% of all cases and phenoxymethylpenicillin was the most commonly prescribed antibiotic. Of the forms returned, 94% emanated from primary care centres. In conclusion, this study provides information on the treatment pattern associated with various diagnoses and the pattern of use of various antibiotics. Such a study is relatively simple to perform and entails only a small extra workload for the participants.