CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 58Antibiotic Use and ResistanceAntibiotic Resistance in BacteriaHealthcare cost, quality, practices

Outpatient antibiotic prescription rate and pattern in the private sector in India: evidence from medical audit data

Open access
Farooqui, Habib Hasan, Mehta, Aashna, Selvaraj, Sakthivel·2019·PLoS ONE
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0224848PMC PMC6853304
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

The key objective of this research was to generate new evidence on outpatient antibiotic prescription rate and patterns in the private sector in India. We used 12-month period (May 2013 to April 2014) medical audit dataset from IQVIA (formerly IMS Health). We coded the diagnosis provided in the medical audit data to International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10) and the prescribed antibiotics for the diagnosis to Anatomic Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification of World Health Organization (ATC index-2016). We calculated and reported antibiotic prescription rate per 1,000 persons per year, by age groups, antibiotic class and disease conditions. Our main findings are-approximately 519 million antibiotic prescriptions were dispensed in the private sector, which translates into 412 prescriptions per 1,000 persons per year. Majority of the antibiotic prescriptions were dispensed for acute upper respiratory infections (J06) (20.4%); unspecified acute lower respiratory infection (J22) (12.8%); disorders of urinary system (N39) (6.0%); cough (R05) (4.7%); and acute nasopharyngitis (J00) (4.6%) and highest antibiotic prescription rates were observed in the age group 0-4 years. To conclude our study reports first ever country level estimates of antibiotic prescription by antibiotic classes, age groups, and ICD-10 mapped disease conditions.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1371/journal.pone.0224848

Cites

37 of 37 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The private sector contributes 85-90% of total antibiotic consumption in India.

    “We examined the private sector antibiotic use, which contributes to 85–90% of the total consumption in India.”

    From Consumption of systemic antibiotics in India in 2019 (2022) · cites this paper as [20]

    The Introduction describes high antibiotic prescribing in private facilities and says the private sector accounts for nearly 75% of outpatient visits. Neither that passage nor the Discussion and Conclusions gives the private sector’s share of total antibiotic consumption; the claimed 85–90% is unsupported by our copy. (LLM, conf=0.78)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • The data did not include drugs dispensed through public facilities, though this is less than 15-20% of all drug sales in India.

    “However, these data did not include the drugs dispensed through public facilities, though this is less than 15–20% of all drug sales in the country as per studies and national health accounts estimates.18,20,21”

    From Consumption of systemic antibiotics in India in 2019 (2022) · cites this paper as [20]

    The Data source and setting section says the data do not capture public-sector prescriptions. The Discussion says approximately 90% of medicine expenditure occurs in the private sector, but it does not give a public-sector share of all drug sales; expenditure and sales are different measures. The indexed passages provide no page numbers. (LLM, conf=0.87)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • 85-90% of all drug prescriptions in India happen in the private sector.

    “previous studies18,20 and national health accounts estimates for India21 have shown that 85-90% of all drug prescriptions happen in the private sector”

    From Consumption of systemic antibiotics in India in 2019 (2022) · cites this paper as [20]

    The Introduction says the private sector accounts for nearly 75% of outpatient visits, and the Discussion says approximately 90% of medicine expenditure occurs there. Neither figure measures the share of all drug prescriptions, so the claimed 85–90% prescription share is not established by this paper. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [45]Will achieve full immunization coverage for all children by 2020 through a Catch-Up campaign [Internet]. New Delhi: Press Information Bureau 2014 [cited 3/9/2016]. http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=114103

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Farooqui, H. H., Mehta, A., & Selvaraj, S.
Affiliations
Public Health Foundation of India (IN)
Corresponding author
Farooqui, Habib Hasan
ORCID
Venue
PLoS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Published
2019-11-13
Volume
14
Issue
11
Pages
e0224848
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0224848
PMC
PMC6853304
OpenAlex
W2984037525
Cited by
58
References
37
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 7
FWCI
5.85
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
Department of Science and Technology, India
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology › Antibiotic Use and Resistance
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Medicine › Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare cost, quality, practices
Keywords
antibiotic prescription rates, outpatient antibiotic prescribing, private healthcare sector, India, antibiotic use patterns, acute respiratory infections, urinary tract infection, pediatric antibiotic use, ICD-10, antimicrobial stewardship
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Anti-Bacterial Agents, Child, Child, Preschool, Humans, India, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Medical Audit, Outpatients, Drug Prescriptions, Private Sector, Age Distribution, Young Adult

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review