Does diagnostic testing always decrease antibiotics prescriptions?


Journal

The European journal of health economics : HEPAC : health economics in prevention and care
ISSN: 1618-7601
Titre abrégé: Eur J Health Econ
Pays: Germany
ID NLM: 101134867

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
Jul 2023
Historique:
received: 02 12 2021
accepted: 07 06 2022
medline: 22 5 2023
pubmed: 4 8 2022
entrez: 3 8 2022
Statut: ppublish

Résumé

Empiric prescription to treat infectious diseases in community care settings has caused antibiotics to be overprescribed, increasing antimicrobial resistance (AMR). To reduce antibiotics prescription, the use of point-of-care diagnostic testing (POCT) has been suggested. We present a stylized static theoretical economic model to analyse whether the use of POCT always decreases antibiotics prescriptions. We consider the interaction of a group of doctors who differ in their level of concern about AMR when prescribing with a firm selling a POCT, and we characterize the price set by the manufacturer and doctors' decision to employ POCT. We found that the number of antibiotics prescriptions is not always lower. This result depends on the distribution of the doctors' concern about AMR as there is a proportion of doctors who use POCT and then prescribe antibiotics while other doctors change their prescribing behaviour after using POCT and stop giving antibiotics to patients who do not benefit from them. When the proportion of patients who need antibiotic treatment is higher than the proportion of doctors who use POCT and stop prescribing unnecessary antibiotics, the number of antibiotics prescriptions is larger. Our analysis also shows that the use of POCT improves health outcomes. We should be very careful when we assert that POCT reduces antibiotics prescriptions as there are situations in which the opposite effect occurs.

Sections du résumé

BACKGROUND BACKGROUND
Empiric prescription to treat infectious diseases in community care settings has caused antibiotics to be overprescribed, increasing antimicrobial resistance (AMR). To reduce antibiotics prescription, the use of point-of-care diagnostic testing (POCT) has been suggested.
METHODS METHODS
We present a stylized static theoretical economic model to analyse whether the use of POCT always decreases antibiotics prescriptions. We consider the interaction of a group of doctors who differ in their level of concern about AMR when prescribing with a firm selling a POCT, and we characterize the price set by the manufacturer and doctors' decision to employ POCT.
RESULTS RESULTS
We found that the number of antibiotics prescriptions is not always lower. This result depends on the distribution of the doctors' concern about AMR as there is a proportion of doctors who use POCT and then prescribe antibiotics while other doctors change their prescribing behaviour after using POCT and stop giving antibiotics to patients who do not benefit from them. When the proportion of patients who need antibiotic treatment is higher than the proportion of doctors who use POCT and stop prescribing unnecessary antibiotics, the number of antibiotics prescriptions is larger. Our analysis also shows that the use of POCT improves health outcomes.
CONCLUSIONS CONCLUSIONS
We should be very careful when we assert that POCT reduces antibiotics prescriptions as there are situations in which the opposite effect occurs.

Identifiants

pubmed: 35921019
doi: 10.1007/s10198-022-01488-0
pii: 10.1007/s10198-022-01488-0
pmc: PMC10198875
doi:

Substances chimiques

Anti-Bacterial Agents 0

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

673-678

Subventions

Organisme : Wellcome Trust
Pays : United Kingdom

Informations de copyright

© 2022. The Author(s).

Références

BMJ. 2009 Jun 23;338:b2242
pubmed: 19549995
Pharmacoeconomics. 2021 Dec;39(12):1411-1427
pubmed: 34263422
Br J Gen Pract. 2013 Jul;63(612):e465-71
pubmed: 23834883
J Pharm Policy Pract. 2017 Apr 4;10:13
pubmed: 28392925
Eur J Health Econ. 2019 Jun;20(4):483-485
pubmed: 30560434
Antimicrob Resist Infect Control. 2018 Aug 9;7:98
pubmed: 30116525
Rev Med Virol. 2021 Mar;31(2):e2163
pubmed: 32969125
J Antimicrob Chemother. 2018 Nov 1;73(11):3189-3198
pubmed: 30165522
J Antimicrob Chemother. 2018 Feb 1;73(suppl_2):19-26
pubmed: 29490060
BMJ Glob Health. 2019 Mar 30;4(2):e001291
pubmed: 30997171
Health Econ Rev. 2021 Aug 9;11(1):29
pubmed: 34370115
PLoS One. 2016 Mar 30;11(3):e0152420
pubmed: 27027303

Auteurs

F Antoñanzas (F)

Department of Economics, University of La Rioja, La Cigüeña 60, 26006, Logrono, Spain.

C A Juárez-Castelló (CA)

Department of Economics, University of La Rioja, La Cigüeña 60, 26006, Logrono, Spain.

R Rodríguez-Ibeas (R)

Department of Economics, University of La Rioja, La Cigüeña 60, 26006, Logrono, Spain. roberto.rodriguez@unirioja.es.

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Classifications MeSH