Antibiotic Prescription and Its Impact on COVID-19 Patient Recovery: A Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Background: COVID-19, a newly discovered infectious disease, with a wide range of intensity, has recently become the primary global health issue. Antibiotics are medications designed against microorganisms that are typically not effective in viral infections such as COVID-19. Considering that more than a third of physicians prescribe antibiotics for COVID-19 patients, it was essential to examine the efficacy of these medications. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 128 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Iran and performed appropriate statistical tests, including the Chi-square test, and regression analyses, using SPSS 26 (IBM, USA). The missing data were managed properly. Results: The study included 128 COVID-19 patients with a mean age of 58.7 years, and 46.9% were male. Age was the only factor significantly associated with mortality and hospitalization. However, patients with abnormal potassium, prothrombin, partial thromboplastin time, urea, creatinine, and albumin levels had significantly different hospitalization periods and mortality rates. The most commonly prescribed antibiotics were ceftriaxone, hydroxychloroquine, and azithromycin. In addition, patients who took vancomycin had a significantly higher mortality rate. Conclusion: Our findings revealed that age and gender could significantly impact hospital stay duration and mortality rates. Considering that certain antibiotics were linked to prolonged hospital stays, bacterial infection during COVID-19 was not significantly related to increased mortality, which questions the necessity of antibiotics for all patients. The study identified age, gender, and certain lab parameters as associated factors with COVID-19 outcomes. Since its retrospective nature and small sample size limit the findings’ applicability, larger studies are needed to confirm the findings and explore other potential risk factors.