Antibiotic use declines significantly in France post-lockdown

A recent study found that outpatient antibiotic use in France declined significantly following the COVID-19 lockdown. Changes in health care access and prescribing patterns during the pandemic played a key role in this decline. Researchers analyzed health insurance data from 67 million people. They looked at antibiotic prescriptions from January 2010 to March 2022, using a method called interrupted time-series analysis. This method helped them measure the impact of the first national lockdown that started on March 17, 2020. The results showed a notable decrease in the use of most antibiotics after the lockdown. The use of amoxicillin dropped by 27.5% three months after the lockdown and by 55.5% a year later. Similarly, other antibiotics like amoxicillin-clavulanic acid and cefepime also saw significant reductions. Interestingly, some antibiotics that are used for chronic conditions experienced a temporary increase. Azithromycin use did not decrease significantly after the lockdown and even rose slightly over the following year. The study's findings suggest that the pandemic may have reduced the unnecessary prescribing of antibiotics, especially those used to treat respiratory and urinary infections. This could imply that many antibiotics were overprescribed prior to the pandemic.