{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,3]],"date-time":"2026-04-03T02:30:27Z","timestamp":1775183427312,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,25]],"date-time":"2021-08-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1629849600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001871","name":"Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e a Tecnologia","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["PTDC\/SAU-SER\/31678\/2017"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PTDC\/SAU-SER\/31678\/2017"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001871","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Antibiotics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread globally and is currently having a damaging impact on nearly all countries in the world. The implementation of stringent measures to stop COVID-19 dissemination had an influence on healthcare services and associated procedures, possibly causing antibiotic consumption fluctuations. This paper aims to evaluate the immediate and long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on antibiotic prescribing trends in outpatient care of the Portuguese public health sector, including in primary healthcare centers and hospitals, as well as on specific antibiotic groups known to be closely associated with increased resistance. Segmented regression analysis with interrupted time series data was used to analyze whether the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact in antibiotic prescribing tendencies at a national level. The outcomes from this quasi-experimental approach demonstrate that, at the beginning of the pandemic, a significant, immediate decrease in the overall antibiotic prescribing trends was noticed in the context of outpatient care in Portugal, followed by a statistically non-significant fall over the long term. The data also showed a significant reduction in the prescription of particular antibiotic classes (antibiotics from the Watch group, 3rd-generation cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, and clarithromycin) upon COVID-19 emergence. These findings revealed an important disruption in antibiotics prescribing caused by the current public health emergency.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/antibiotics10091040","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,26]],"date-time":"2021-08-26T00:19:26Z","timestamp":1629937166000},"page":"1040","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":39,"title":["The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Antibiotic Prescribing Trends in Outpatient Care: A Nationwide, Quasi-Experimental Approach"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2914-3120","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"T\u00e2nia Magalh\u00e3es","family":"Silva","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Sciences, iBiMED\u2014Institute of Biomedicine, University of Aveiro, 3810 Aveiro, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6123-3818","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marta","family":"Estrela","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Sciences, iBiMED\u2014Institute of Biomedicine, University of Aveiro, 3810 Aveiro, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8956-9145","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eva Rebelo","family":"Gomes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Allergy and Clinical Immunology Service, University Hospital Center of Porto, 4099 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Maria","family":"Pi\u00f1eiro-Lamas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Consortium for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBER Epidemiology and Public Health\u2014CIBERESP), 15706 Santiago de Compostela, Spain"},{"name":"Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela (IDIS), University of Santiago de Compostela, 15706 Santiago de Compostela, Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5766-8672","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Adolfo","family":"Figueiras","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Consortium for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBER Epidemiology and Public Health\u2014CIBERESP), 15706 Santiago de Compostela, Spain"},{"name":"Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela (IDIS), University of Santiago de Compostela, 15706 Santiago de Compostela, Spain"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0169-3788","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"F\u00e1tima","family":"Roque","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Research Unit for Inland Development, Guarda Polytechnic Institute (UDI-IPG), 6300 Guarda, Portugal"},{"name":"Health Sciences Research Centre, University of Beira Interior (CICS-UBI), 6200 Covilh\u00e3, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0500-4049","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maria Teresa","family":"Herdeiro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Sciences, iBiMED\u2014Institute of Biomedicine, University of Aveiro, 3810 Aveiro, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,8,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"119","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijid.2020.03.071","article-title":"Insight into 2019 novel coronavirus\u2014An updated interim review and lessons from SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV","volume":"94","author":"Xie","year":"2020","journal-title":"Int. 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