Effectiveness of Stewardship Intervention for Urinary Tract Infections in Primary Care: A Difference in Differences Study

Adherence to 2011 Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) guidelines for urinary tract infections (UTIs) remains low in primary care. Fluoroquinolones are commonly prescribed to treat uncomplicated cystitis, and most antibiotic prescriptions have durations that exceed current recommendations. We performed a difference-in-differences study to assess the effectiveness of a stewardship intervention in a family medicine clinic at an academic outpatient center from August 2016 to March 2019. During our intervention period, the FDA released 2 additional warnings about the side effects of fluoroquinolones. Methods: The study had 2 sites (intervention and comparison) and 3 periods: baseline, before the intervention, and the intervention. During the first 2 years, we obtained baseline data and performed interviews (preintervention period) exploring provider prescribing decisions for cystitis at both sites. During the intervention period at the intervention site only, we presented an educational lecture including an overview of the IDSA guidelines, definitions for various UTI syndromes and actual clinical examples, and instruction on use of a decision aid. During the audit and feedback phase, providers were contacted once per month in person or by phone to provide follow-up on whether their treatment decision adhered to the IDSA guidelines. We performed a log-binomial regression analysis of the primary outcome, adherence to the IDSA guidelines for management of uncomplicated cystitis, both to antibiotic choice and duration of therapy. Results: We performed 156 audit-and-feedback sessions with 13 providers during the intervention period (March 2018–2019). Patients in both sites were similar in terms of age and Charlson comorbidity index. Adherence to the guidelines for antibiotic choice and duration increased in the intervention period at both sites (Fig. 1). The treatment of cystitis in the intervention period of the intervention site was 11.5 times (95% CI, 6.1–21.6) as likely to be guideline-adherent as the treatment in the baseline period of the comparison site (Fig. 2). Conclusions: Adherence to IDSA guidelines for the choice of antibiotic and duration increased in both intervention and comparison sites. Even though the intervention site started with higher compliance, improvement was also greater in the intervention site. FDA warnings about the side effects of fluoroquinolones released during the intervention period may have contributed to the avoidance of fluoroquinolones at both sites. Our intervention was effective at improving antibiotic choice and duration, so our future plans include incorporating our decision-support algorithm into the electronic medical record.Funding: This study was supported by Zambon Pharmaceuticals.Disclosures: None