A recent letter (SW Olesen et  al. NEJM 2019; 380: 1872-3) showed the frequency of filling antibiotic prescriptions in the U.S. from 2011-2014 using the Truven Health MarketScan Research Databases (62 million enrollees).

Key findings:

“The probability of filling an antibiotic prescription at an outpatient pharmacy was 33% … over 1 year, 47% …over 2 years, 55% …over 3 years, and 62%…over 4 years.”

My take: One-third of the population is filling an antibiotic prescription each year.  That is way too much –antibiotic stewardship program personnel should have a lot of job security.