The practice of using antibacterial drugs for respiratory infections
Authors:   Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education «Voronezh State Medical University named after N. N. Burdenko» of the Russian Federation Ministry of Health, Voronezh, Russia, Gabbasova N. V. , Mamchik N. P. ,   Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education «Voronezh State Medical University named after N. N. Burdenko» of the Russian Federation Ministry of Health, Voronezh, Russia; Federal Budgetary Health Institution «Center of Hygiene and Epidemiology in the Voronezh region», Voronezh, Russia, Mazina O. L. ,   Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education «Voronezh State Medical University named after N. N. Burdenko» of the Russian Federation Ministry of Health, Voronezh, Russia, Yatsenko L. A. ,   Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education «Voronezh State Medical University named after N. N. Burdenko» of the Russian Federation Ministry of Health, Voronezh, Russia, Kameneva O. V. ,   Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education «Voronezh State Medical University named after N. N. Burdenko» of the Russian Federation Ministry of Health, Voronezh, Russia; Federal Budgetary Health Institution «Center of Hygiene and Epidemiology in the Voronezh region», Voronezh, Russia, Dzen N. V. ,   Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education «Voronezh State Medical University named after N. N. Burdenko» of the Russian Federation Ministry of Health, Voronezh, Russia, Knyazeva V. A. ,   Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education «Voronezh State Medical University named after N. N. Burdenko» of the Russian Federation Ministry of Health, Voronezh, Russia
Published: September 2024

Acute respiratory infections, being the leading ones in the structure of infectious morbidity of the population, require the use of antimicrobial drugs, along with symptomatic therapy. The purpose of the work was to assess the frequency and structure of the use of antibacterial drugs for acute respiratory infections before the pandemic and during the spread of Sars-CoV-2. A cross-sectional sampling study was conducted using a questionnaire using a specially designed questionnaire in a Google form. According to the eligibility criteria, 260 respondents aged 18–65 years, average age 25.14±11.13 years, took part in the study. Statistical processing of the results was carried out using the Microsoft Office Excel 2016 program, the significance of the differences was determined using the Student’s test, the results were considered significant at p<0.05. The study showed that the majority of respondents use antibiotics to treat acute respiratory infections, the frequency of their prescription both before the pandemic and in the period 2020–2021. did not change — 60.8 % and 60.0 %, respectively. Antibacterial drugs were prescribed by a medical professional in 71.1 % of cases, and independently in 21.1 % of cases. Self-prescription of drugs was significantly more common in the group aged 30 years and older. In the structure of the drugs used, protected penicillins, macrolides and cephalosporins were in the lead. Age-related differences in the use of antibiotics in the pre-pandemic period were revealed: young people under 30 years of age, compared with the age group of 30 years of age and older, not only significantly more often used these drugs to treat respiratory infections (p = 0.012), but also could use them 2 or more times per year (p=0.0038). During the pandemic, men more often did without the use of antibacterial drugs compared to women (p = 0.035), however, in the structure of antibiotic use in men, the frequency of more frequent use of drugs increased 4 times (2 or more times a year, p = 0.047).