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Systematic Reviews

For Healthcare Professionals

Below is a collection of systematic reviews that have examined the most effective interventions to improve antibiotic prescribing for outpatients.

Reference Interventions and Outcomes Methods, Participants, and Settings Results Conclusions
Arnold SR, et al. Interventions to improve antibiotic prescribing practices in ambulatory care. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2005. 4:CD003539. Interventions

• Physician educational materials

• Audit and feedback

• Educational meetings

• Educational outreach visits

• Financial and healthcare system changes

• Physician reminders

• Patient-based interventions

• Multi-faceted interventions

Outcomes

• Improve selection, dose and duration of antibiotics prescribed

• Reduce incidence of pathogens with antimicrobial resistance

Methods

• Systematic review

Participants

• Healthcare consumers or primary care providers

Setting

• Primary care clinics and ambulatory care clinics

• 39 studies

• Only small changes observed for single interventions using printed educational materials or audit and feedback.

• Active educational interventions are more effective than nonactive interventions.

• Delayed prescriptions effectively reduced antibiotic use by patients without negatively affecting patient outcomes.

• Multifaceted interventions were more successful in decreasing inappropriate antibiotic prescribing.

• Multifaceted interventions are most effective.

• No single intervention is recommended for all settings.

Drekonja DM et al. Antimicrobial stewardship in outpatient settings: a systematic review. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2015. Feb;36(2):142–52.

 

Interventions

• Provider and or patient education

• Provider feedback

• Delayed prescribing

• Communication skills training

• Guidelines

• Restriction Policies

• Computerized clinical decision support

• Financial incentives

• Rapid diagnostics

• Costs reporting

Outcomes

• Prescribing outcomes

• Patient outcomes

• Microbial outcomes

• Costs

 

Methods

• Systematic review

Participants

• Primarily healthcare consumers and primary care providers

Setting

• Primary care clinics and ambulatory care clinics

 

• 50 studies

• Stewardship programs using communication skills training and laboratory testing can lower antibiotic use.

• Several stewardship interventions can effectively improve antibiotic prescribing.

• Patient outcomes were not often reported, but did not appear to worsen due to intervention.

• Outpatient antibiotic stewardship programs can improve antibiotic prescribing without negatively affecting patient outcomes.

• Sustainability and scalability of specific interventions is less clear.

McDonagh M, et al. Improving Antibiotic Prescribing for Uncomplicated Acute Respiratory Tract Infections. AHRQ Comparative Effectiveness Reviews 2016. No. 163.

 

Interventions

• Education

• Communication

• Clinical

• System-level

• Multifaceted interventions

Outcomes

• Improvement of appropriate antibiotic prescribing

• Reduction in antibiotic resistance

• Reduction in overall antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory tract infections (RTIs)

• Increases in adverse drug events

• Increases in patient dissatisfaction

Methods

• Systematic review

Participants

• Healthcare consumers (both adults and children) with acute RTIs

• Primary care providers

Setting

• Primary care clinics and ambulatory care clinics

 

• 133 studies

• Four interventions showed evidence of improving antibiotic prescribing with without worsening patient outcomes due to reductions in antibiotic prescribing:

o Clinic-based parent education (21% reduction).

o Public patient education campaigns combined with clinician education (7% prescribing reduction).

o Procalcitonin for adults (12% to 72% prescribing reduction).

o Electronic decision support systems (improved antibiotic selection and 5% to 9% reduction in prescribing).

o Public parent education campaigns reduce overall prescribing without increasing followup visits.

• Several interventions safely reduced antibiotic prescribing or improved appropriate antibiotic prescribing without adversely affecting patient outcomes.

• These include education for patients, parents, and clinicians, procalcitonin testing in adults, and electronic clinician decision support.

 

Ranji SR, et al. Interventions to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescribing: A systematic review and quantitative analysis. Med Care 2008. 46(8):847–62. Interventions

• Clinician education

• Patient education

• Audit and feedback

• Clinician reminders

Outcomes

• Reduction in proportion of patients receiving antibiotics

Methods

• Systematic review and quantitative analysis

Participants

• Healthcare consumers (both adults and children) with acute outpatient infections

• Primary care providers

Setting

• Primary care clinics and ambulatory care clinics

• 43 studies

• Most studies examined antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory infections.

• The quantitative analysis (n = 30 studies) found a median reduction of 9.7% in the percent of patients receiving antibiotics

• No single intervention was clearly superior.

• Active clinician education strategies had a nonsignificant trend toward better efficacy compared with passive education strategies.

• Some interventions are effective at reducing antibiotic use in outpatient settings.

• Active clinician education strategies appear to work better than passive education strategies.

• Targeting antibiotic prescribing for all ARIs, versus single diagnoses, may lead to larger reductions in antibiotic use.

van der Velden AW, et al. Effectiveness of physician-targeted interventions to improve antibiotic use for respiratory tract infections. Br J of Gen Pract 2012. 62(605):e801–7.

 

Interventions

• Educational materials (patients, clinicians, and the general public)

• Educational meetings

• Consensus procedure

• Local opinion leaders

• Near-patient testing

• Audit and feedback

• Financial incentives

• Communications skills training

Outcomes

• Difference of differences for interventions with a before and after measurement with a control group

• Differences for interventions with a before and after measurement without a control group

• Difference in after measurement for interventions with a control group but without a before measurement

Methods

• Systematic review

Participants

• Healthcare consumers (both adults and children) with acute outpatient infections

• Primary care providers

Setting

• Primary care clinics in high income countries

 

• 58 studies

• About 60% of studies contained interventions that led to significant improvements in antibiotic prescribing.

• Interventions targeting decreases in overall antibiotic prescription were more often effective than interventions targeting improvements in antibiotic selection.

• Antibiotic prescriptions were reduced on average by 11.6%. First-line antibiotic prescription increased on average by 9.6%.

• Combination interventions targeting clinicians were more often effective compared with single interventions.

• Interventions containing patient-directed materials demonstrated no added value.

• Interventions with the largest effect sizes included communication skills training and point-of-care testing.

• Clinician education, including communication skills training, is important to optimize antibiotic use.

• Combination interventions appear to be more effective than individual interventions.

 

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