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Two-thirds of patients hospitalized with pneumonia received an excess duration of antibiotics, according to a recent study of more than 6,000 patients.
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The findings bolster a growing body of evidence showing that short-course therapy for pneumonia is safe and that longer durations are not only unnecessary, but “potentially harmful,” said Valerie M. Vaughn, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and coinvestigators.
“Reducing excess treatment durations should be a top priority for antibiotic stewardship nationally,” the investigators wrote in their report, which appears in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The primary analysis of their retrospective cohort study included 6,481 individuals with pneumonia treated at 43 hospitals participating in a statewide quality initiative designed to improve care for hospitalized medical patients at risk of adverse events. About half of the patients were women, and the median age was 70 years. Nearly 60% had severe pneumonia.
The primary outcome of the study was the rate of excess antibiotic therapy duration beyond the shortest expected treatment duration consistent with guidelines. Patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), representing about three-quarters of the study cohort, were expected to have a treatment duration of at least 5 days, while patients with health care–acquired pneumonia (HCAP) were expected to have at least 7 days of treatment.
Overall, 4,391 patients (67.8%) had antibiotic courses longer than the shortest effective duration, with a median duration of 8 days, and a median excess duration of 2 days, the researchers noted.
The great majority of excess days (93.2%) were due to antibiotic prescribed at discharge, according to Dr. Vaughn and colleagues.
Excess treatment duration was not linked to any improvement in 30-day mortality, readmission rates, or subsequent emergency department visits, they found.
In a telephone call at 30 days, 38% of patients treated to excess said they had gone to the doctor for an antibiotic-associated adverse event, compared with 31% who received appropriate-length courses (P = .003).
Odds of a patient-reported adverse event were increased by 5% for every excess treatment day, the investigators wrote.
Taken together, these findings have implications for patient care, research efforts, and future guidelines, according to Dr. Vaughn and coinvestigators.
“The next iteration of CAP and HCAP guidelines should explicitly recommend (rather than imply) that providers prescribe the shortest effective duration,” they said in a discussion of their study results.
Dr. Vaughn reported no disclosures related to the study. Coauthors reported grants from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, personal fees from Wiley Publishing, and royalties from Wolters Kluwer Publishing and Oxford University Press, among other disclosures.
SOURCE: Vaughn VM et al. Ann Intern Med. 2019;171:153-63. doi: 10.7326/M18-3640.
This study by Vaughn and colleagues adds “valuable insight” to an already considerable body of evidence showing that shorter durations of antibiotic therapy are effective and limit potential harm due to adverse effects, authors of an accompanying editorial said.
“After dozens of randomized, controlled trials and more than a decade since the initial clarion call to move to short-course therapy, it is time to adapt clinical practice for diseases that have been studied and adopt the mantra ‘shorter is better,’ ” Brad Spellberg, MD, and Louis B. Rice, MD, wrote in their editorial.
“It is time for regulatory agencies, payers, and professional societies to align themselves with the overwhelming data and assist in converting practice patterns to short-course therapy,” the authors said.
Brad Spellberg, MD, is with the Los Angeles County–University of Southern California Medical Center, and Louis B. Rice, MD, is with Rhode Island Hospital, Brown University, Providence, R.I. Their editorial appears in Annals of Internal Medicine. The authors reported disclosures outside the submitted work from Alexion, Paratek, TheoremDx, Acurx, Shionogi, Merck, Motif, BioAIM, Mycomed, and ExBaq (Dr. Spellberg); and Zavante Pharmaceuticals and Macrolide (Dr. Rice).
This study by Vaughn and colleagues adds “valuable insight” to an already considerable body of evidence showing that shorter durations of antibiotic therapy are effective and limit potential harm due to adverse effects, authors of an accompanying editorial said.
“After dozens of randomized, controlled trials and more than a decade since the initial clarion call to move to short-course therapy, it is time to adapt clinical practice for diseases that have been studied and adopt the mantra ‘shorter is better,’ ” Brad Spellberg, MD, and Louis B. Rice, MD, wrote in their editorial.
“It is time for regulatory agencies, payers, and professional societies to align themselves with the overwhelming data and assist in converting practice patterns to short-course therapy,” the authors said.
Brad Spellberg, MD, is with the Los Angeles County–University of Southern California Medical Center, and Louis B. Rice, MD, is with Rhode Island Hospital, Brown University, Providence, R.I. Their editorial appears in Annals of Internal Medicine. The authors reported disclosures outside the submitted work from Alexion, Paratek, TheoremDx, Acurx, Shionogi, Merck, Motif, BioAIM, Mycomed, and ExBaq (Dr. Spellberg); and Zavante Pharmaceuticals and Macrolide (Dr. Rice).
This study by Vaughn and colleagues adds “valuable insight” to an already considerable body of evidence showing that shorter durations of antibiotic therapy are effective and limit potential harm due to adverse effects, authors of an accompanying editorial said.
“After dozens of randomized, controlled trials and more than a decade since the initial clarion call to move to short-course therapy, it is time to adapt clinical practice for diseases that have been studied and adopt the mantra ‘shorter is better,’ ” Brad Spellberg, MD, and Louis B. Rice, MD, wrote in their editorial.
“It is time for regulatory agencies, payers, and professional societies to align themselves with the overwhelming data and assist in converting practice patterns to short-course therapy,” the authors said.
Brad Spellberg, MD, is with the Los Angeles County–University of Southern California Medical Center, and Louis B. Rice, MD, is with Rhode Island Hospital, Brown University, Providence, R.I. Their editorial appears in Annals of Internal Medicine. The authors reported disclosures outside the submitted work from Alexion, Paratek, TheoremDx, Acurx, Shionogi, Merck, Motif, BioAIM, Mycomed, and ExBaq (Dr. Spellberg); and Zavante Pharmaceuticals and Macrolide (Dr. Rice).
Two-thirds of patients hospitalized with pneumonia received an excess duration of antibiotics, according to a recent study of more than 6,000 patients.
.
The findings bolster a growing body of evidence showing that short-course therapy for pneumonia is safe and that longer durations are not only unnecessary, but “potentially harmful,” said Valerie M. Vaughn, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and coinvestigators.
“Reducing excess treatment durations should be a top priority for antibiotic stewardship nationally,” the investigators wrote in their report, which appears in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The primary analysis of their retrospective cohort study included 6,481 individuals with pneumonia treated at 43 hospitals participating in a statewide quality initiative designed to improve care for hospitalized medical patients at risk of adverse events. About half of the patients were women, and the median age was 70 years. Nearly 60% had severe pneumonia.
The primary outcome of the study was the rate of excess antibiotic therapy duration beyond the shortest expected treatment duration consistent with guidelines. Patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), representing about three-quarters of the study cohort, were expected to have a treatment duration of at least 5 days, while patients with health care–acquired pneumonia (HCAP) were expected to have at least 7 days of treatment.
Overall, 4,391 patients (67.8%) had antibiotic courses longer than the shortest effective duration, with a median duration of 8 days, and a median excess duration of 2 days, the researchers noted.
The great majority of excess days (93.2%) were due to antibiotic prescribed at discharge, according to Dr. Vaughn and colleagues.
Excess treatment duration was not linked to any improvement in 30-day mortality, readmission rates, or subsequent emergency department visits, they found.
In a telephone call at 30 days, 38% of patients treated to excess said they had gone to the doctor for an antibiotic-associated adverse event, compared with 31% who received appropriate-length courses (P = .003).
Odds of a patient-reported adverse event were increased by 5% for every excess treatment day, the investigators wrote.
Taken together, these findings have implications for patient care, research efforts, and future guidelines, according to Dr. Vaughn and coinvestigators.
“The next iteration of CAP and HCAP guidelines should explicitly recommend (rather than imply) that providers prescribe the shortest effective duration,” they said in a discussion of their study results.
Dr. Vaughn reported no disclosures related to the study. Coauthors reported grants from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, personal fees from Wiley Publishing, and royalties from Wolters Kluwer Publishing and Oxford University Press, among other disclosures.
SOURCE: Vaughn VM et al. Ann Intern Med. 2019;171:153-63. doi: 10.7326/M18-3640.
Two-thirds of patients hospitalized with pneumonia received an excess duration of antibiotics, according to a recent study of more than 6,000 patients.
.
The findings bolster a growing body of evidence showing that short-course therapy for pneumonia is safe and that longer durations are not only unnecessary, but “potentially harmful,” said Valerie M. Vaughn, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and coinvestigators.
“Reducing excess treatment durations should be a top priority for antibiotic stewardship nationally,” the investigators wrote in their report, which appears in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The primary analysis of their retrospective cohort study included 6,481 individuals with pneumonia treated at 43 hospitals participating in a statewide quality initiative designed to improve care for hospitalized medical patients at risk of adverse events. About half of the patients were women, and the median age was 70 years. Nearly 60% had severe pneumonia.
The primary outcome of the study was the rate of excess antibiotic therapy duration beyond the shortest expected treatment duration consistent with guidelines. Patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), representing about three-quarters of the study cohort, were expected to have a treatment duration of at least 5 days, while patients with health care–acquired pneumonia (HCAP) were expected to have at least 7 days of treatment.
Overall, 4,391 patients (67.8%) had antibiotic courses longer than the shortest effective duration, with a median duration of 8 days, and a median excess duration of 2 days, the researchers noted.
The great majority of excess days (93.2%) were due to antibiotic prescribed at discharge, according to Dr. Vaughn and colleagues.
Excess treatment duration was not linked to any improvement in 30-day mortality, readmission rates, or subsequent emergency department visits, they found.
In a telephone call at 30 days, 38% of patients treated to excess said they had gone to the doctor for an antibiotic-associated adverse event, compared with 31% who received appropriate-length courses (P = .003).
Odds of a patient-reported adverse event were increased by 5% for every excess treatment day, the investigators wrote.
Taken together, these findings have implications for patient care, research efforts, and future guidelines, according to Dr. Vaughn and coinvestigators.
“The next iteration of CAP and HCAP guidelines should explicitly recommend (rather than imply) that providers prescribe the shortest effective duration,” they said in a discussion of their study results.
Dr. Vaughn reported no disclosures related to the study. Coauthors reported grants from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, personal fees from Wiley Publishing, and royalties from Wolters Kluwer Publishing and Oxford University Press, among other disclosures.
SOURCE: Vaughn VM et al. Ann Intern Med. 2019;171:153-63. doi: 10.7326/M18-3640.
FROM ANNALS OF INTERNAL MEDICINE
Key clinical point: Excessive antibiotic therapy was common among patients hospitalized with pneumonia and linked to an increase in patient-reported adverse events.
Major finding: Two-thirds (67.8%) of patients had antibiotic courses longer than the shortest effective duration.
Study details: Retrospective cohort study of 6,481 individuals with pneumonia treated at 43 hospitals participating in a statewide quality initiative.
Disclosures: Study authors reported grants from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, personal fees from Wiley Publishing, and royalties from Wolters Kluwer Publishing and Oxford University Press, among other disclosures.
Source: Vaughn VM et al. Ann Intern Med. 2019;171:153-63. doi: 10.7326/M18-3640.
