Consecutive antibiotic use in the outpatient setting: an extensive longitudinal descriptive analysis of antibiotic dispensing data in the Netherlands

摘要

IntroductionTaking consecutive antibiotic use into account is of importance to obtain insight in treatment within disease episodes, use of 2nd- and 3rd-choice antibiotics, therapy failure and/or side effects. Nevertheless, studies dealing with consecutive antibiotic use are scarce. We aimed at evaluating switch patterns in antibiotic use in the outpatient setting in the Netherlands.