Physician characteristics associated with antiviral prescriptions for older adults with COVID-19 in Japan : an observational study

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ..

OBJECTIVES: Although guidelines recommend antiviral therapy for outpatients with COVID-19 who are at high risk of progressing to severe conditions, such as older adults, many patients do not receive appropriate treatment. Little is known, however, about the physician factors associated with the prescription of guideline-recommended antiviral therapy for patients with COVID-19.

DESIGN: A cross-sectional study.

SETTING: Data including outpatient visits in primary care clinics in Japan from April to August 2023.

PARTICIPANTS: We analysed 30 953 outpatients aged ≥65 years treated with COVID-19 (mean (SD) age, 75.0 (7.6) years; 17 652 women (57.0%)) in 1394 primary care clinics.

OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome was the prescription of guideline-recommended antivirals (ie, nirmatrelvir-ritonavir or molnupiravir), adjusted for patient characteristics, months of visits and regions.

RESULTS: Antiviral prescriptions were concentrated among a small proportion of physicians; for example, the top 10% of physicians that had the largest number of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir prescriptions accounted for 92.4% of all nirmatrelvir-ritonavir prescriptions. After adjusting for potential confounders, physicians with higher patient volumes were more likely to prescribe guideline-recommended antivirals to their patients (adjusted OR (aOR) for high vs low volume, 1.76; 95% CI 1.31 to 2.38; adjusted p<0.001). We found no evidence that the likelihood of guideline-recommended antiviral prescription differed based on physicians' gender (aOR for women vs men, 1.24; 95% CI 0.88 to 1.74; adjusted p=0.48) or age (aOR for 45-59 vs <45 years, 1.16; 95% CI 0.87 to 1.54; adjusted p=0.48; aOR for ≥60 vs <45 years, 0.88; 95% CI 0.66 to 1.16; adjusted p=0.48). These patterns were similar when examining nirmatrelvir-ritonavir and molnupiravir separately.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that provider-level factors, such as the clinical experience of treating the patients with COVID-19, play an important role in the appropriate prescription of antiviral medications for COVID-19 in the primary care setting.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2024

Erschienen:

2024

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:14

Enthalten in:

BMJ open - 14(2024), 3 vom: 15. März, Seite e083342

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Miyawaki, Atsushi [VerfasserIn]
Kitajima, Kei [VerfasserIn]
Iwata, Akihiro [VerfasserIn]
Sato, Daichi [VerfasserIn]
Tsugawa, Yusuke [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

5CSZ8459RP
7R9A5P7H32
9DLQ4CIU6V
Antiviral Agents
COVID-19
Cytidine
Drug Utilization
Electronic Health Records
GMW67QNF9C
Health Services Accessibility
Hydroxylamines
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Journal Article
Lactams
Leucine
Molnupiravir
Nirmatrelvir
Nitriles
O3J8G9O825
Observational Study
Physicians
Proline
Ritonavir
YA84KI1VEW

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 18.03.2024

Date Revised 20.03.2024

published: Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1136/bmjopen-2023-083342

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM369803434