Half of seniors who went to doctor for common cold prescribed unnecessary antibiotics
Nearly one in two seniors in Ontario who visited a family doctor for a non-bacterial infection received an unnecessary antibiotic prescription, according to a new study from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) Western site in London, Ontario and Lawson Health Research Institute.
The study published in Annals of Internal Medicine, examined the rate of antibiotic prescribing for seniors who presented to a primary care physician in 2012 and the characteristics of the physicians prescribing the antibiotics.
