{"id":41176,"date":"2025-08-01T07:00:25","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T11:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/?page_id=41176"},"modified":"2026-01-30T08:00:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T13:00:45","slug":"antibiotic-utilization-for-respiratory-conditions-axr","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/antibiotic-utilization-for-respiratory-conditions-axr\/","title":{"rendered":"Antibiotic Utilization for Respiratory Conditions (AXR)\u202f"},"content":{"rendered":"

The percentage of episodes for <\/span>persons<\/span> 3 months of age and older with a diagnosis of a respiratory condition that resulted in an antibiotic dispensing event.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why It Matters?<\/h2>\n

Approximately 269 million antibiotic prescriptions are dispensed annually in the United States (1)<\/sup>. <\/span>While these medications are life-saving interventions for conditions such as sepsis, nearly<\/span><\/b> 30% of antibiotics prescribed in outpatient settings are potentially inappropriate <\/span><\/b>(2,3)<\/sup>. Antibiotics prescribed for respiratory conditions in outpatient settings are a large driver of antibiotic overuse and demonstrate a higher proportion of events resulting in unnecessary use.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Misuse of antibiotics can allow antibiotic-resistant bacteria to survive and multiply. Overuse drives the development and spread of resistance. A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that more than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur in the United States each year, and more than 35,000 people die as a result (4)<\/sup>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Antibiotics prescribed for a<\/span>cute respiratory conditions <\/span>accounted for 55% (22.6 million) of all antibiotic prescriptions, at a cost of approximately $726M, with upper respiratory infections (not otherwise specified), pharyngitis and bronchitis having the greatest amount of excess use (5)<\/sup>. For influenza alone, the estimated annual cost of inappropriate antibiotic prescribing in the United States is approximately $211M (6)<\/sup>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Several campaigns and resources are available to help clinicians and health plans address inappropriate antibiotic prescribing. These campaigns include CDC\u2019s Be Antibiotics Aware and the American Board of Internal Medicine Choosing Wisely campaign. The CDC has also partnered with payers, physicians and other health care stakeholders to prioritize six high-burden health conditions, including improving antibiotic use in its CDC 6|18 Initiative: Improve Antibiotic Use campaign. This initiative highlights evidence-based interventions for improving antibiotic prescribing and supports health plans by incentivizing providers to follow CDC\u2019s Core Elements of Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship: <\/span>
\n1.) commitment; 2.) action for policy and practice; 3.) tracking and reporting; 4.) education and expertise (7).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Historical Results \u2013 National Averages<\/span><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The percentage of episodes for persons 3 months of age and older with a diagnosis of a respiratory condition that resulted in an antibiotic dispensing event.\u00a0 Why It Matters? Approximately 269 million antibiotic prescriptions are dispensed annually in the United States (1). While these medications are life-saving interventions for conditions such as sepsis, nearly 30% […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"parent":733,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-41176","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAntibiotic Utilization for Respiratory Conditions (AXR)\u202f - NCQA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Assesses children who turned 15 months old during the measurement year and had 0\u20136 well-child visits with a primary care physician during their first 15 months of life.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/antibiotic-utilization-for-respiratory-conditions-axr\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Antibiotic Utilization for Respiratory Conditions (AXR)\u202f - NCQA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Assesses children who turned 15 months old during the measurement year and had 0\u20136 well-child visits with a primary care physician during their first 15 months of life.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/antibiotic-utilization-for-respiratory-conditions-axr\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"NCQA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/NCQA.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-30T13:00:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/NCQA_cmyk_tag.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"627\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@NCQA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/antibiotic-utilization-for-respiratory-conditions-axr\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/antibiotic-utilization-for-respiratory-conditions-axr\/\",\"name\":\"Antibiotic Utilization for Respiratory Conditions (AXR)\u202f - NCQA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-01T11:00:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-30T13:00:45+00:00\",\"description\":\"Assesses children who turned 15 months old during the measurement year and had 0\u20136 well-child visits with a primary care physician during their first 15 months of life.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/antibiotic-utilization-for-respiratory-conditions-axr\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/antibiotic-utilization-for-respiratory-conditions-axr\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/antibiotic-utilization-for-respiratory-conditions-axr\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Report Cards\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Health Plans\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"State of Health Care Quality Report\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/report-cards\/health-plans\/state-of-health-care-quality-report\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":5,\"name\":\"Antibiotic Utilization for Respiratory Conditions (AXR)\u202f\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ncqa.org\/\",\"name\":\"NCQA\",\"description\":\"Measuring quality. 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