Table 2.
Prescribing patterns of antivirals and antibiotics for ILI according to general practices and patients’ characteristics, Australia, 2015–2017
| Variables | % of cases managed with antiviral * | % of cases managed with antibiotics* | ||||||
| Total | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | Total | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | |
| Practices’ characteristics | ||||||||
| State † | ||||||||
| New South Wales | 31.1 | 25.9 | 29.8 | 35.2 | 28.8 | 31.4 | 29.6 | 26.7 |
| Victoria | 26.4 | 21.3 | 25.2 | 31.3 | 25.9 | 27.2 | 26.1 | 25.1 |
| Queensland | 22.0 | 18.4 | 21.6 | 25.7 | 28.9 | 30.7 | 28.2 | 27.4 |
| Western Australia | 16.9 | 16.7 | 17.2 | 16.1 | 29.9 | 32.1 | 28.4 | 27.7 |
| Tasmania | 17.3 | 10.5 | 14.7 | 25.3 | 27.5 | 29.0 | 22.0 | 31.0 |
| South Australia | 9.0 | 5.4 | 15.8 | 7.5 | 23.7 | 21.6 | 29.8 | 21.1 |
| Australian Capital Territory | 28.0 | 37.6 | 17.8 | 24.8 | 41.4 | 56.5 | 29.9 | 32.6 |
| Northern Territory | 8.5 | 9.7 | 4.4 | 9.4 | 22.2 | 23.2 | 22.2 | 21.8 |
| Rurality † | ||||||||
| Major cities | 25.3 | 20.4 | 23.5 | 30.4 | 28.3 | 31.1 | 27.5 | 26.7 |
| Inner regional | 23.6 | 19.9 | 22.5 | 27.5 | 29.1 | 29.9 | 30.0 | 27.6 |
| Outer regional/remote/very remote | 26.4 | 22.8 | 28.0 | 29.6 | 26.3 | 26.9 | 28.0 | 24.2 |
| IRSAD quintile † | ||||||||
| Very high | 34.2 | 28.0 | 34.3 | 39.4 | 30.7 | 31.9 | 32.4 | 28.3 |
| High | 23.6 | 22.6 | 22.3 | 25.5 | 28.1 | 31.2 | 27.8 | 25.6 |
| Middle | 25.1 | 19.6 | 23.1 | 30.5 | 28.4 | 30.0 | 29.2 | 26.7 |
| Low | 18.5 | 15.2 | 15.9 | 22.9 | 28.0 | 33.3 | 24.9 | 25.7 |
| Very low | 13.5 | 9.1 | 11.1 | 19.6 | 23.4 | 24.3 | 19.9 | 25.5 |
| Patients’ characteristics | ||||||||
| Gender† | ||||||||
| Male | 25.1 | 20.6 | 23.6 | 30.1 | 26.6 | 28.4 | 26.3 | 25.3 |
| Female | 25.1 | 20.5 | 23.9 | 29.5 | 29.7 | 32.0 | 29.6 | 27.8 |
| Age† | ||||||||
| <5 | 16.5 | 12.4 | 14.8 | 20.8 | 29.8 | 30.9 | 27.9 | 30.4 |
| 5–17 | 19.5 | 15.4 | 18.2 | 23.7 | 24.0 | 25.9 | 25.6 | 21.4 |
| 18–44 | 24.6 | 20.2 | 23.2 | 30.3 | 25.5 | 27.9 | 24.9 | 23.5 |
| 45–64 | 25.9 | 21.0 | 24.2 | 30.7 | 30.6 | 33.4 | 31.0 | 28.4 |
| ≥65 | 32.8 | 30.4 | 31.5 | 35.4 | 34.4 | 38.1 | 33.1 | 33.3 |
| Ethnicity† | ||||||||
| Non Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander | 24.8 | 20.3 | 23.1 | 29.6 | 28.7 | 31.2 | 28.2 | 27.2 |
| Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander | 19.6 | 14.7 | 18.9 | 23.2 | 29.9 | 33.4 | 30.9 | 26.6 |
| Not recorded | 26.4 | 21.4 | 26.0 | 31.1 | 26.5 | 27.5 | 27.3 | 24.9 |
| IRSAD quintile † | ||||||||
| Very high | 28.8 | 24.7 | 27.5 | 33.4 | 28.9 | 31.5 | 28.2 | 27.2 |
| High | 22.6 | 19.6 | 22.1 | 25.6 | 27.1 | 29.0 | 25.8 | 26.3 |
| Middle | 26.9 | 20.4 | 25.3 | 32.7 | 28.1 | 29.3 | 29.7 | 26.1 |
| Low | 20.4 | 16.8 | 17.9 | 25.2 | 29.2 | 32.8 | 28.6 | 26.7 |
| Very low | 20.1 | 12.7 | 17.4 | 26.9 | 27.8 | 28.2 | 27.5 | 27.5 |
| Comorbidities†‡ | ||||||||
| No | 24.8 | 20.6 | 23.5 | 29.3 | 26.4 | 28.7 | 26.2 | 24.7 |
| Yes | 25.9 | 20.4 | 24.5 | 31.1 | 33.7 | 35.9 | 33.8 | 31.9 |
| Depression/anxiety† | ||||||||
| No | 25.6 | 21.0 | 24.5 | 30.1 | 27.6 | 29.9 | 27.2 | 26.0 |
| Yes | 23.7 | 19.2 | 21.6 | 28.9 | 30.1 | 31.7 | 30.4 | 28.6 |
| Total number of ILI cases | 98 086 | 31 882 | 27 957 | 38 306 | 98 086 | 31 882 | 27 957 | 38 306 |
| Total | 25.0 | 20.6 | 23.7 | 29.7 | 28.3 | 30.3 | 28.0 | 26.7 |
*Logistic regression models with practices’ characteristics are adjusted for each other; logistic regression models with patients’ characteristics are adjusted for age, gender and practices’ characteristics. Numbers in bold indicate p value ≤0.05 for analyses between the first (reference) category of each variable and the other categories in the same year.
†P value ≤0.05 for longitudinal analysis (difference between years in the same category).
‡Comorbidities include: cardiac disease, chronic neurological disease, chronic respiratory disease, chronic liver disease, immunocompromising conditions and other chronic diseases (including chronic renal failure, diabetes mellitus or haemoglobinopathies).
ILI, influenza-like illness; IRSAD, Index of Relative Socioeconomic Advantage and Disadvantage.