Outpatient Antibiotic Prescriptions — United States, 2011

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Healthcare providers prescribed 273.3 million antibiotic prescriptions—equivalent to 877 antibiotic prescriptions per 1000 persons.

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Citation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Outpatient antibiotic prescriptions — United States, 2011.

Table 1. Oral antibiotic prescriptions by age and sex—United States, 2011.

Table 1a. Oral antibiotic prescriptions by age and sex—United States, 2011.
Age group NUMBER OF ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS (MILLIONS) ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS PER 1,000 PERSONS, RATE
<20 yearsa 75.2 908
≥20 yearsa 191.9 838
Table 1b. Oral antibiotic prescriptions by age and sex—United States, 2011.
Sex NUMBER OF ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS (MILLIONS)> ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS PER 1,000 PERSONS, RATE
Femalea 164.2 1,036
Malea 106.5 695
Table 1c. Oral antibiotic prescriptions by age and sex—United States, 2011.
Region NUMBER OF ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS (MILLIONS)> ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS PER 1,000 PERSONS, RATE
Northeast 49.6 892
Midwest 63.4 944
South 111.4 960
West 48.9 671

aTotals may not add to all oral prescriptions (273.3 million) due to missing data

Table 2. Top oral antibiotic classes and agents prescribed—United States, 2011.

Table 2a. Top oral antibiotic classes and agents prescribed—United States, 2011.
ANTIBIOTIC CLASS NUMBER OF ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS (MILLIONS) ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS (MILLIONS) PER 1,000 PERSONS, RATE
Penicillins 61.1 196
Macrolides 59.2 190
Cephalosporins 36.6 117
Fluoroquinolones 31.6 101
Beta-lactams, increased activity 22.1 71
Table 2b. Top oral antibiotic classes and agents prescribed—United States, 2011.
ANTIBIOTIC AGENT NUMBER OF ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS (MILLIONS) ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS (MILLIONS) PER 1,000 PERSONS, RATE
Amoxicillin 54.3 174
Azithromycin 52.9 170
Amoxicillin/clavulanic acid 22.1 71
Cephalexin 21.0 67
Ciprofloxacin 20.4 66

Table 3. Oral antibiotic prescribing by provider specialty — United States, 2011

Table 3. Oral antibiotic prescribing by provider specialty — United States, 2011
PROVIDER SPECIALTY NUMBER OF ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS (MILLIONS) ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS PER PROVIDER, RATE
Primary Care Physicians 134.9 568
Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners 38.5 222
Surgical Specialties 23.0 187
Dentistry 20.8 233
Emergency Medicine 14.7 454
Dermatology 8.5 746
Obstetrics/Gynecology 7.2 191
Other 25.7 124
All Providers 273.3 300
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)pdf iconexternal icon. [cited2015 September 22]

Figure 1. Antibiotic prescriptions per 1000 persons by state (sextiles) for all ages — United States, 2011.

Antibiotic prescriptions per 1000 persons by state (sextiles) for all ages US 2011 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 = 1,032 - 1,355

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, 2011.
State Number of prescriptions per 1000 persons, Rate
Alabama                 1,154
Alaska                    588
Arizona                    812
Arkansas                 1,032
California                    629
Colorado                    662
Connecticut                    882
Delaware                 1,024
District Of Columbia                 1,061
Florida                    778
Georgia                    874
Hawaii                    679
Idaho                    740
Illinois                    908
Indiana                 1,059
Iowa                    936
Kansas                 1,018
Kentucky                 1,321
Louisiana                 1,194
Maine                    769
Maryland                    860
Massachusetts                    842
Michigan                 1,006
Minnesota                    746
Mississippi                 1,186
Missouri                    975
Montana                    724
Nebraska                 1,009
Nevada                    725
New Hampshire                    724
New Jersey                    963
New Mexico                    715
New York                    913
North Carolina                    908
North Dakota                 1,002
Ohio                    993
Oklahoma                    912
Oregon                    636
Pennsylvania                    876
Rhode Island                    935
South Carolina                    941
South Dakota                    924
Tennessee                 1,247
Texas                    932
Utah                    846
Vermont                    697
Virginia                    866
Washington                    662
West Virginia                 1,355
Wisconsin                    779
Wyoming                    774
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Page last reviewed: September 12, 2017
Content source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID), Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP)