Research groups such as Okayama University have used medical big data to clarify the use of antibacterial drugs in the treatment of colds.
About 9% of acute respiratory tract infections, commonly called colds, are said to be viral, and most colds do not require antibiotic treatment.Although some respiratory tract infections may be caused by bacterial infections, penicillin antibiotics, which are narrow-range antibiotics, are still recommended as first-line antibiotics.
The use of antibiotics in these diseases where the need for antibiotics is low is not only a risk of side effects.With the increase in the use of antibacterial drugs, the outbreak of drug-resistant bacteria that have acquired resistance to antibacterial drugs is increasing, and countermeasures are required worldwide.
As efforts to reduce the use of less-needed antibacterial drugs are progressing in the international community, action plans for drug resistance measures are being formulated in Japan as well.However, until now, there has been a lack of large-scale research to understand the usage status of antibacterial agents for acute respiratory tract infections in outpatient clinics where many oral antibacterial agents are prescribed.
In this study, we analyzed 2013 million cold outpatient visits in Japan from 2015 to 865 based on detailed information on medical fees from many medical institutions.As a result, it was found that antibacterial drugs were prescribed for more than half (52.7%) of the consultations due to colds.Furthermore, it was also clarified that only a few prescriptions of penicillin antibiotics are recommended as first-line antibiotics, and prescriptions of broad-spectrum antibiotics other than penicillin antibiotics account for a high proportion (91.3%). rice field.
The study also revealed the use of antibiotics by age group and disease subgroup of acute respiratory tract infections.By applying a new method called data science to medical big data, we have achieved an analysis of actual antibacterial drug usage in a large number of medical institutions, which was difficult to carry out until now.
This result is considered to be scientific knowledge for future drug resistance measures.
