Antibiotic-Associated Acute Kidney Injury Among Older Adults: A Case-Crossover Study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Drug-related acute kidney injury is quite common in older adults. The associated drugs, including antibiotics, are often co-prescribed. The objective of this study was to ascertain antibiotic-associated acute kidney injury (AKI) in older adults aged 65 years or above in New Zealand using a case-crossover study design.

METHODS

The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, tenth revision, Australian modification code N17.x was used to identify all individuals aged 65 years and above with a diagnosis of incident AKI on admission between 1 January 2005 and 31 December 2020, from the New Zealand National Minimum Data Set. A case-crossover cohort for antibiotic exposures, with a 3 day case period and two 30 day washout periods, summed up to a 66 day study period, was created. Using conditional logistic regression, the changed odds of AKI due to exposure to an antibiotic was calculated as matched odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals.

RESULTS

A total of 2399 incident cases of AKI were identified between 2005 and 2020 among older adults. The adjusted odds of consuming sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim antibiotic during the case period was 3.57 times (95% CI 2.86-4.46) higher than the reference period among the incident AKI cases. Fluoroquinolone utilization was also associated with incident AKI (adjusted OR = 2.56; 95% CI 1.90-3.46).

CONCLUSION

The potential of sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim and fluoroquinolones to be associated with AKI raises the significant need for vigilant prescribing of these antibiotics in older adults.