Concerning: ‘Why has antibiotic prescribing for respiratory illness declined in primary care? A longitudinal study using the General Practice Research Database’

Incidence and antibiotic prescription rates for common infections in patients with diabetes in primary care over the years 1995 to 2003

“…23 Since 2000, consultation rates for LRTI have shown evidence of stabilizing. 24 Compared with our findings, an earlier study in the Netherlands found a lower GP consultation rate for LRTI in the general population during a 12-month period between May 2000 and April 2002: 44 per 1000 personyears. 22 It is difficult to accurately compare UTI incidences because for example, in the USA, UTI are not reportable diseases.…”

The cost-effectiveness of vaccinating pregnant women against seasonal influenza in England and Wales

“…The annual risk of having a GP consultation for influenza in this population was estimated to be 1.9% and 2.4% using the first and second method respectively, and 2.2% when both estimates were combined (details in Supplement S3). This is significantly higher than an earlier estimate of 0.72% for the incidence of GP consultations in the population of England and Wales using data from the General Practice Research Database (GPRD) [17], possibly because not all consultations are coded in the GPRD [25].…”

Antibiotics in Dutch general practice: nationwide electronic GP database and national reimbursement rates

“…The finding that practices participating in a research network of nationwide GP database prescribe about a quarter fewer antibiotics than GPs in general, is supported by a study in England. 13,14 The distribution of antibiotics among ICPC chapters is nearly the same as in the UK, except for urinary diseases; in the Netherlands 25% of all antibiotics, in the UK 10%. 15 Half of all antibiotic prescriptions were indicated for respiratory and ear diseases, while 20 years ago 70% of antibiotic prescriptions were attributed to these disease categories in the Netherlands.…”