CDC Core Elements of Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship: The Quiz
According to the US CDC, the most important modifiable risk factor for antibiotic resistance is (fill in this blank). Find out here and fill in 5 more blanks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2023 added core elements of outpatient antibiotic stewardship to the its guidance from 2014 for hospitals and 2015 for hospital and nursing home settings.
The CDC describes antibiotic stewardship as the effort to measure and improve how antibiotics are prescribed by clinicians and used by patients. "Improving antibiotic prescribing involves implementing effective strategies to modify prescribing practices to align them with evidence-based recommendations for diagnosis and management."
The following questions are based on the 2023 guidance; find out how familiar you are with the CDC's Core Elements of Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship.
1. What are the most important modifiable risk factor for antibiotic resistance?
Answer: Inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics is the most important modifiable risk factor for antibiotic resistance.
2. The CDC defines antibiotic stewardship in part as which of the above?
Answer: Antibiotic stewardship is concerned with how available agents are prescribed, focusing on reducing further antimicrobial resistance, now outpacing the development of new antibiotics.
3. True or false: Antibiotic treatment is the most important risk factor for Clostridioides difficile infection.
Answer: True
One study estimated that a 10% reduction in overall outpatient antibiotic prescribing could reduce community-associated C. difficile infections by 17%.
One study estimated that a 10% reduction in overall outpatient antibiotic prescribing could reduce community-associated C. difficile infections by 17%.
4. True or false: Antibiotic resistance is a moderate public health threat, implicated in 23,000 infections per year in the US.
Answer: False. The CDC considers antibiotic resistance to be among the greatest public health threats today, leading to an estimated 2 million infections and 23,000 deaths per year in the US.
5. Match the condition with the common pattern of antibiotic use.
Answer: The above are "high priority" conditions for outpatient antibiotic stewardship, as clinicians commonly deviate from best practices, resulting in antibiotics being over-prescribed, under-prescribed or misprescribed with the wrong antibiotic agent, dose or duration.
6. Match a CDC Core Element to the antibiotic stewardship procedure.
Answer: The above measures are examples of those recommended by the CDC for the following core elements of outpatient antibiotic stewardship.
CDC Core Elements to the antibiotic stewardship procedure: Commitment; action for policy and practice.
