TORONTO - Guidelines for Quebec doctors on proper antibiotic use led to a decline in these prescriptions in the province, while prescribing rose in other provinces, a new study suggests.
The guidelines were published and disseminated to Quebec doctors and pharmacists in January 2005 due to worries about the overuse of antibiotics and partly as a response to an outbreak of Clostridium difficile infections.
Antibiotic consumption per capita was already 23.3 per cent higher in Canada generally than in Quebec in 2004, the study showed.
But in the year that followed publication of the guidelines, the number of outpatient antibiotic prescriptions in Quebec decreased 4.2 per cent, the study said, while increasing 6.5 per cent in other Canadian provinces. The trend persisted three years later.
"It is possible to decrease antibiotic consumption when physicians, pharmacists, state governments, etc., are working together for a common goal. This is the key to success: having everybody involved and speaking with a common voice," study author Dr. Karl Weiss of the University of Montreal said in a statement.
His research was published Tuesday in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Downloadable versions of the guidelines were available online and they were promoted by professional organizations, experts and universities during educational events.
Weiss said it shows that simple, short, easy-to-use guidelines have an impact on doctors when they are readily available.
"With handheld electronic devices available for all health-care professionals, these downloadable guidelines can be accessed and used at any time and any circumstance," he said.
Quebec was hit by an outbreak of C. difficile between 2002 and 2004, which led officials to implement their extensive educational campaign.
Vulnerable patients taking antibiotics are generally the most susceptible to the bacterial disease, which causes severe diarrhea. Contact with fecal matter is generally how it is spread in hospitals.
