Outpatient antibiotic prescriptions issued 18 percent of the time without a recorded reason

PORTLAND, Ore. — A one-year review of outpatient visits to health care providers in the U.S. shows that 18 percent of antibiotic prescriptions have been issued without a reported reason for doing so.

The results reported in BMJ today are significant as they shed more light on the rate of misuse of antibiotics outside hospitals and other hospital care facilities.

If not necessary, administering antibiotics exposes pati....