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Conference Summary
Promoting Appropriate Antibiotic
Use in the Community
Alison Patti*
and Jennifer Weissman*
*Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Suggested
citation for this article
The Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work 5th annual national conference
was held June 3–4, 2004, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Get Smart: Know When
Antibiotics Work is a health education campaign of the National Center
for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
This campaign aims to reduce the spread of antibiotic resistance by promoting
adherence to appropriate prescribing guidelines among providers, decreasing
demand for antibiotics for viral upper respiratory infections among healthy
adults and parents of young children, and increasing adherence to regimens
for prescribed antibiotics for upper respiratory infections. The conference
drew approximately 225 professionals who are dedicated to promoting appropriate
antibiotic use, including representatives from state and local health
departments, clinicians, pharmacists, professional organizations, managed
care and health plans, public health organizations and agencies, and pharmaceutical
companies.
The opening session provided an overview of CDC's "3 Programs, 1
Goal," a collaborative effort to prevent antimicrobial resistance
in the United States. Richard Besser described the community campaign,
Tom Chiller discussed the farm program, and Denise Cardo presented the
healthcare settings campaign. The ensuing discussion focused on promoting
appropriate use of antibiotics in agriculture, in which an estimated 25
million pounds of antimicrobial agents are used for nontherapeutic purposes
(1). Karen Florini from Environmental Defense discussed
this topic.
Ralph Gonzales, University of California, San Francisco, and Kitty Corbett,
University of Colorado, Denver, presented results from their Colorado
media campaign. According to an assessment using a preintervention-postintervention
nonequivalent control design, >35,000 antibiotic prescriptions were
avoided as a result of the campaign. Edward Belongia, Wisconsin Antibiotic
Resistance Network Project, presented outcomes from their 5-year demonstration
intervention project. Public and clinician knowledge and attitudes about
antibiotic resistance and appropriate use improved in Wisconsin compared
with results in the control state of Minnesota. Over the course of the
intervention, secular trends toward reductions in antibiotic prescribing
occurred in both states.
Carolyn Greene, CDC, moderated a panel discussion on promoting appropriate
prescribing through provider training. The panel discussed an appropriate
antibiotic use curriculum for fourth-year medical students; an appropriate
antibiotic use curriculum for family practice, pediatric, and internal
medicine residents; and a curriculum for pediatric and family practice
residents to teach diagnosis of otitis media.
Ralph Gonzales presented information that confirmed that the rate of
broad-spectrum antibiotic use was rising rapidly. Further studies need
to be completed to determine whether this increased prescribing is necessary.
As a result, the Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work campaign plans
to promote the prescription of narrow-spectrum, targeted drugs when appropriate.
Barbara Mintzes, University of British Columbia, and Paul Rubin, Emory
University, discussed the issue of advertising directly to consumers.
Dr. Mintzes noted that drug advertising can result in unnecessary use,
improper prescribing, and increased patient demand. Dr. Rubin noted that
advertising medications allows consumers to be informed about their health
options and that advertising can be economically beneficial to pharmaceutical
companies, thereby contributing to their ability to invest in new drug
development.
Breakout sessions included such topics as sustaining and evaluating appropriate
antibiotic use programs and incorporating cultural competency. The sustainability
session, presented by Michelle Johnston, Center for Civic Partnerships,
introduced a process for determining how to best focus energy, time, and
resources. Thomas Chapel, CDC, reviewed the steps of CDC's Evaluation
Framework, led a discussion of the role of logic models in program planning
and evaluation, and presented a case study with sample appropriate antibiotic
use activities and outcomes. Suzanne Bronheim, National Center for Cultural
Competence, discussed cultural competency, the ability of a person to
understand and respect differences across cultures and to consider and
respond appropriately to these differences in planning, implementing,
and evaluating health education programs and interventions (2).
Mary Eley, Michigan Antibiotic Resistance Reduction Coalition, held a
training session for her curriculum, "Antibiotics and You: Promoting
Appropriate Antibiotic Use in Elementary Schools," a module designed
to teach children the basics about bacteria and viruses and when antibiotics
are necessary. Participants received toolkits, which would enable them
to implement similar training sessions.
Conference participants reported that they increased their knowledge
of appropriate antibiotic use programs, developed skills for program development
and evaluation, acquired training in cultural competency, and found opportunities
for collaboration. For more information, see http://www.cdc.gov/getsmart/.
References
- Union of Concerned Scientists. Food and environment:
antibiotic resistance. [accessed 2004 Aug 3]. Available from http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_environment/antibiotic_resistance/index.cfm
- American Association for Health Education. [accessed 2004 Sept 17].
Available from http://www.aahperd.org/aahe
Suggested citation
for this article:
Patti A, Weissman J.
Promoting appropriate antibiotic use in the community [conference summary].
Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2005 Feb [date cited].
Available from http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol11no02/04-1007.htm
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