Assessment of the quality of antibiotics prescription in a regional health system

Antibiotic Prescription in the Community-Dwelling Elderly Population in Lombardy, Italy: A Sub-Analysis of the EDU.RE.DRUG Study

“…Accordingly, males received more prescriptions than females starting from the age of 70 in Italy [ 25 ], and, in another study carried out in the Lombardy region between 2000 and 2019, Franchi and colleagues showed that ≥80 old males exceeded females in antibiotic prevalence (females vs. males: 42.2% vs. 46.1% in 2000 and 41.8% vs. 42.8% in 2019) [ 36 ]. Conversely, a study in the La Rioja region (Spain) detected a different trend in the two sexes as age increased: females showed a higher consumption than males in all age groups, reaching the maximum difference in the subjects aged 85–89 years (females vs. males: 35.0 DID vs. 25.5 DID, approximately), but also highlighted a very different prescription pattern between sexes in terms of type of antibiotics [ 37 ]. Indeed, in our multivariable logistic regression analysis, female sex was a risk factor for antibiotic prescription, but it was associated with a reduced probability of receiving a fluoroquinolone prescription, suggesting a greater attention by GPs on the use of fluoroquinolones in the clinical context of cystitis, a typically female disorder involving frequent inappropriate use, especially in Italy [ 38 , 39 ].…”