Trends of antibiotic use for acute upper respiratory infections in Chinese emergency departments and the impact of COVID-19: a cross-sectional study

Table 1 Characteristics of patients prescribed antibiotics for AURIs in Chinese ED settings, 2018 to 2023

Characteristics	No. patients with AURIs	Antibiotics given	APR (%)
Overall	768,781	449,288	58.44
Sex
Female	376,838	221,598	58.80
Male	391,943	227,690	58.09
Age group
0 ~ < 5	234,021	110,130	47.06
5 ~ < 8	93,531	50,789	54.30
8 ~ < 18	94,379	53,031	56.19
18 ~ < 65	289,159	196,915	68.10
65 ~ < 80	38,607	26,379	68.33
> = 80	19,084	12,044	63.11
Diagnosis ^a
J00	4,024	1,281	31.83
J02	32,547	21,813	67.02
J03	81,181	53,573	65.99
J04	258,198	170,971	66.22
J05	397	345	86.90
J06	414,316	215,708	52.06
Year
2018	167,169	103,914	62.16
2019	206,193	123,644	59.97
2020	80,076	46,236	57.74
2021	85,286	51,145	59.97
2022	83,259	46,068	55.33
2023	146,798	78,281	53.33

^aA patient may have multiple AURIs diagnoses. APR Antibiotic prescription rate, AURIs Acute upper respiratory infections; J00: Acute nasopharyngitis (common cold), J02: Acute pharyngitis, J03: Acute tonsillitis, J04: Acute laryngitis and tracheitis, J05: Acute obstructive laryngitis and epiglottitis, J06: Acute upper respiratory infections of multiple and unspecified sites

ISSN: 2047-2994