Antibiotic Prescriptions for Upper Respiratory Infection in the Emergency Department: A Population-Based Study

Table 1

Baseline characteristics of the antibiotic group and the control group.

Variables	Antibiotic group		Control group		𝑃 value
	(𝑛=5800)		(𝑛=44597)
	No.	%	No.	%
Male	2585	45.43	19499	44.80	0.367
Patient age (SD)	46.02	20.51	41.70	18.94	<0.001
Socioeconomic status					0.074
Low	2807	49.33	20894	48.00
Moderate	2133	37.49	16487	37.88
High	750	13.18	6146	14.12
Smoking status	125	2.16	1118	2.51	0.104
Hypertension	1980	34.14	12557	28.16	<0.001
CAD	1211	20.88	7669	17.20	<0.001
Asthma	1260	21.72	8335	18.69	<0.001
COPD	911	15.71	4703	10.55	<0.001
Diabetes	1139	19.64	7170	16.08	<0.001
Charlson Comorbidity Index Score					<0.001
0	1438	24.79	14101	31.62
1	1812	31.24	14281	32.02
≥2	2550	43.97	16215	36.36
Total costs (SD)	79.61	79.94	46.31	44.46	<0.001
Unscheduled returns	121	2.09	1150	2.58	0.024