Recent research into the role of the human microbiome in maintaining health has identified the potentially harmful impact of antimicrobials.
The association with bacterial and viral meningitis following antimicrobial prescription during the previous year was investigated to determine whether antimicrobials have a deleterious effect on the nasopharyngeal microbiome.
A case-control study (1:4 cases to controls) was conducted examining the rate of previous antimicrobial exposure in cases of meningitis and in a matched control group. Data from a UK primary care clinical database were analysed using conditional logistic regression.
A total of 7346 cases of meningitis were identified, 3307 (45%) viral, 1812 (25%) bacterial, and 2227 (30%) unspecified. The risks of viral (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 2.45; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.24 to 2.68) or bacterial (AOR 1.98; 95% CI = 1.71 to 2.30) meningitis were both increased following antimicrobial prescription in the preceding year. Patients who received ≥4 antimicrobial prescriptions in the preceding year were at significantly increased risk of all types of meningitis (AOR 2.85; 95% CI = 2.44 to 3.34), bacterial meningitis (AOR 3.06; 95% CI = 2.26 to 4.15) and viral meningitis (AOR 3.23; 95% CI = 2.55 to 4.08) compared to their matched controls.
There was an increased risk of meningitis following antimicrobial prescription in the previous year. It is possible that this increase was due to an effect of antimicrobials on the microbiome or reflected an increased general susceptibility to infections in these patients.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
4
6%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences
3
5%
Other
13
20%
Unknown
18
28%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 29. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 06 January 2026.
All research outputs
#1,700,047
of 34,360,889 outputs
Outputs from British Journal of General Practice
#741
of 5,797 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#21,511
of 337,560 outputs
Outputs of similar age from British Journal of General Practice
#16
of 90 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,360,889 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 95th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 5,797 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 20.3. This one has done well, scoring higher than 87% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 90 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 82% of its contemporaries.
