Antibiotic prescribing in the older population v1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Antibiotic prescribing in older people and trends on movement into institutional care: a record linkage study.
IRAS ID
154671
Contact name
Paula Tighe
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Queen's University Belfast
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 31 days
Research summary
A recent editorial in JAMA Internal Medicine indicated that antimicrobial prescribing in care homes is seen as a global problem, contributing to increasing resistance. In this context, it is concerning that a recent European survey showed that nursing homes in Northern Ireland rank the third highest in terms of antibiotic prescribing in Europe. Not only was the proportion of individuals on an antibiotic high in NI, but data from the same study showed that a large number of antibiotics were given prophylactically with no review or end date. This raises concerns about the quality of prescribing in care homes.
This study will provide empirical evidence about: 1) the respective prevalence and quality of prescribing of antibiotics to individuals aged 65 years and over in the community and care homes, by type of care home; previous studies have focussed on nursing homes; 2) the likelihood of being prescribed an antibiotic adjusting for other factors and quantification of how much of the variation can be attributed to GP practices or care homes and; 3) the change in prevalence and quality of antibiotic prescribing on entry to a care home.
We seek ethical approval to request an extraction of patient-level data from the enhanced prescribing database, within the safe haven of the Honest Broker Service, to improve the understanding of patterns of antibiotic prescribing in the elderly population. The required data set will be entirely anonymous and will not contain patient’s name, address or DOB, the GP Practice and care home will also be encrypted. This data set will not be used to contact either patients, practices or care homes.
REC name
HSC REC A
REC reference
15/NI/0119
Date of REC Opinion
2 Jul 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion