Antibiotic prescriptions associated with a diagnosis of acute nasopharyngitis by general practitioners in France

Background Rhinopharyngitis is a common viral infection that has led to an overuse of prescription drugs. Antibiotics, which are not indicated for this infection, are frequently misused.

Aim The purpose of this study was to describe drug prescriptions for acute rhinopharyngitis diagnoses in the French general practices.

Design & setting Retrospective study of 1,067,403 prescriptions issued by 2,637 physicians to 754,476 patients residing in metropolitan France for a diagnosis of nasopharyngitis.

Method The data were sourced from the prescription software, Cegedim, for a period spanning from first January 2018 to 31st December 2021 and analysed according to patients and physicians ages.

Results A total of 2,591,584 medications were prescribed by GPs with a median of 3 medications per patient. A total of 171,540 antibiotics were prescribed (16% prescription rates) with amoxicillin being the most frequently prescribed (102,089 prescriptions and 59.5% of antibiotic prescriptions). Amoxicillin prescription increases in extreme age groups (patients less than 9-year-old were prescribed amoxicillin in 18.2% of their visits, those over 80 years-old 10% of the visits, while patients aged 20–29-year-old were prescribed amoxicillin in just 2.9% of their visits), and more prescriptions are issued by older doctors (GPs older than 70 years prescribed antibiotics in 26.4% of the visits vs 3.2% of the visits by GPs aged less than 29 years).

Conclusion Nasopharyngitis is frequently a cause of therapeutical over-prescriptions including antibiotics with an antibiotic prescription rate of 16%. Additional research is required to enhance our understanding of the factors linked to drug prescriptions.