Available online at: https://www.cdc.gov/antibiotic-use/community/programs-measurement/state-local-activities/outpatient-antibiotic-prescriptions-US-2012.

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OUTPATIENT ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIPTIONS — United States, 2012

Healthcare providers prescribed 272.3 million antibiotic prescriptions—

Table 1. Oral antibiotic prescriptions by age and sex— Table 2. Top oral antibiotic classes and agents prescribed—
United States, 2012. United States, 2012.
Antibiotic
# antibiotic Antibiotic # antibiotic
prescriptions per
Characteristic prescriptions prescriptions per prescriptions
1000 persons,
(millions) 1000 persons, rate (millions)
rate
Antibiotic class
Age groupa
Penicillins 59.6 190
<20 years 70.8 858
Macrolides 57.1 182
≥20 years 197.0 851
Cephalosporins 36.2 115
Sexa Quinolones 32.7 104
Female 164.7 1,032 Β-lactams, increased
21.8 69
Male 106.5 689 activity
Regiona Tetracycline 21.8 69
Northeast 49.5 886 Antibiotic agent
Midwest 61.3 910 Azithromycin 53.0 169
South 114.4 975 Amoxicillin 51.9 165
West 47.1 640 Amoxicillin-clavulanic
21.8 69
a acid
Totals may not add to all oral prescriptions (272.3 million)
due to missing data. Ciprofloxacin 21.4 68
Trimethoprim-
20.9 67
Table 3. Oral antibiotic prescribing by provider specialty — sulfamethoxazole
United States, 2012.
Data Sources:
# antibiotic Antibiotic Systemic oral antibiotics were extracted from the IMS
Provider specialty prescriptions prescriptions per Health Xponent database. IMS Health captures >70% of
(millions) provider, rate outpatient prescriptions nationally, reconciles them to
wholesale deliveries, and projects to 100% coverage. These
Primary Care Physicians 129.0 543 data represent all outpatient antibiotic prescriptions from
Physician Assistants & community pharmacies and non-governmental mail order
43.2 249
Nurse Practitioners pharmacies from all payers, but exclude federal facilities.
Dentistry 23.4 191 Provider specialties are taken from the American Medical
Association (AMA) self-designated practice specialties and
Surgical Specialties 20.5 230
categorized into one of 17 groups. Population data were
Emergency Medicine 15.0 462 obtained from the U.S. Census bridging files.
Dermatology 8.1 719
References
Obstetrics/Gynecology 7.0 187 1. Hicks, L.A., et al., US Outpatient Antibiotic Prescribing
Other 26.0 125 Variation According to Geography, Patient Population,
and Provider Specialty in 2011. Clin Infect Dis, 2015. 60
All Providers 272.3 299 (9): p. 1308-16.
2. IMS. The Uniform System of Classification (USC). [cited
Citation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2015 September 22]; Available from: http://
Outpatient antibiotic prescriptions — United States, 2012. www.imshealth.com/deployedfiles/ims/Global/Content/
Available via the internet: http://www.cdc.gov/getsmart/ Insights/Health%20Services%20Research%20Network/
community/pdfs/annual-reportsummary_2012.pdf USC_Classiification_Process_2011.pdf.
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 Available online at: https://www.cdc.gov/antibiotic-use/community/programs-measurement/state-local-activities/outpatient-antibiotic-prescriptions-US-2012.html

Figure 1. Antibiotic prescriptions per 1000 persons by state (sextiles) for all ages — United States, 2012.

This project was made possible through a partnership with the CDC Foundation. Support for this project was
provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.