{"id":24352,"date":"2026-06-18T15:54:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T19:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ices.on.ca\/?post_type=journal_article&#038;p=24352"},"modified":"2026-08-04T15:58:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T19:58:53","slug":"safety-of-antibiotic-audit-and-feedback","status":"publish","type":"journal_article","link":"https:\/\/www.ices.on.ca\/fr\/publications\/journal-articles\/safety-of-antibiotic-audit-and-feedback\/","title":{"rendered":"Safety of antibiotic audit and feedback: secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Background<\/strong> \u2014 We previously demonstrated in a randomized controlled trial that antibiotic prescribing feedback to family physicians reduced antibiotic use. However, that trial did not evaluate for patient harms from potential under-prescribing of antibiotics.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Objectives<\/strong> \u2014 To evaluate the safety of an antibiotic audit and feedback intervention.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Methods<\/strong> \u2014 We performed a post hoc secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial that compared an intervention group, who received a mailed antibiotic prescribing peer comparison feedback letter, compared with a control group who did not receive a letter. The initial trial was limited to patients aged 65\u2005years or older due to availability of pharmacy claims data. The primary outcome was an emergency department visit or hospital admission for a bacterial infection. The outcome was assessed at 6\u2005months post-intervention using administrative data claims data and multivariable linear regression models. The initial trial was registered (NCT04594200).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Results<\/strong> \u2014 We included 4879 physicians\u20143909 intervention physicians and 970 control physicians. There were 37\u200a345 severe infection events in the 6 month post-intervention period. The observed mean (SD) of all severe infection events per physician was 7.73 (12.42) for control and 7.64 (11.91) for intervention groups. The model-based adjusted mean difference was \u22120.23 (95% CI, \u22120.92 to 0.45; P\u200a=\u200a0.505).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conclusions<\/strong> \u2014 In this post hoc analysis of a randomized controlled trial comparing antibiotic prescribing feedback versus no feedback to physicians in primary care, there was no evidence of severe bacterial infection complications associated with reduced antibiotic prescribing. These findings support antibiotic peer comparison feedback as a safe and effective tool to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescribing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Background \u2014 We previously demonstrated in a randomized controlled trial that antibiotic prescribing feedback to family physicians reduced antibiotic use. However, that trial did not evaluate for patient harms from potential under-prescribing of antibiotics. Objectives \u2014 To evaluate the safety of an antibiotic audit and feedback intervention. Methods \u2014 We performed a post hoc secondary [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","migration-helper-automated":[],"migration-manual":[],"topic":[56,60,66],"migration-helper-qa-sample-set":[],"class_list":["post-24352","journal_article","type-journal_article","status-publish","hentry","topic-pharmacoepidemiology-and-drug-safety","topic-policy-and-program-evaluation","topic-trials"],"acf":{"citation":"Schwartz KL, Bai L, Brown KA, Tadrous M, Grimshaw JM, Witteman HO, Friedman L, Langford BJ, Leung V, Gomes T, Garber G, Taljaard M, Shuldiner J, Gushue S, Silverman M, Daneman N, Brehaut J, Presseau J, Leis JA, Lacroix M, Zwarenstein M, Masucci L, Thavorn K, Ivers N. <em>J Antimicrob Chemother<\/em>. 2026; 81(7): dkag216.","source_url":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/jac\/dkag216","ices_scientist":[1347,1181,1108,1252,1215,1138,1105,1273,24581],"site":[6733],"research_program":[6747],"news_release":"","journal_article":"","atlas":"","research_report":"","infographic":"","video":"","downloads":null,"links":null,"sitecore_item_id":"","sitecore_item_name":"","sitecore_field_values":"","previous_url":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>ICES | Safety of antibiotic audit and feedback: secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Background \u2014 We previously demonstrated in a randomized controlled trial that antibiotic prescribing feedback to family physicians reduced antibiotic use.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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