Adults Prescribed Too Many Antibiotics for Sore Throat

Although efforts have reduced antibiotic prescribing for children with sore throats, new research suggests that inappropriate prescribing is still high among adults who visit the emergency department. The study, published in the March 2014 issue of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, calculated rates of antibiotic use among patients who visited the emergency department with acute respiratory tract infections from 2001 to 2010. Antibiotics were prescribed in 61% of all visits. Throughout the study period, inappropriate prescribing significantly decreased for patients younger than 5 years and for those aged 5 to 19 years, but remained stable for those aged 20 to 64 years.