title: Using oral vancomycin prescriptions as a proxy measure for Clostridium difficile infections: a spatial and time series analysis.
abstract: Sales for a drug may be correlated with the prevalence of a condition treated by the drug. We found that state data revealed a strong spatial association and national data a strong temporal association between Clostridium difficile and oral vancomycin prescription sales, suggesting a new "signal" for detecting disease activity.
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA. philip-polgreen@uiowa.edu
authors.forename: Philip M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Polgreen
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Jennifer L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Kuntz
authors.forename: Ramanan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Laxminarayan
authors.forename: Joseph E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Cavanaugh
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016360:Clostridioides difficile; D003015:Clostridium Infections / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D009820:Ohio / Q000453:epidemiology; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D012621:Seasons; D014640:Vancomycin / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D014640:Vancomycin