Abstract
Introduction: Since the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, there have been limited reports on the
clinical outcomes of outpatients with influenza treated with baloxavir or neuraminidase inhibitors (NAIs). This study
aimed to investigate the prescription trends and effectiveness of baloxavir and NAIs.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive epidemiological study included data of patients diagnosed with influenza in
Osaka Prefecture, Japan, during the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons who answered a questionnaire via Research
Electronic Data Capture.
Results: During the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons, respectively, we enrolled 73 and 96 patients diagnosed with
influenza A at 26 facilities. Oseltamivir was most commonly prescribed (54.8%) in the 2022-2023 season, whereas
laninamivir was most commonly prescribed (46.9%) in the 2023-2024 season. Baloxavir was prescribed to 11.0%
and 19.8% of patients in the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons, respectively. The time to fever alleviation did not
differ significantly between the baloxavir and NAI groups in either season (2022-2023: p = 0.47; 2023-2024: p =
0.12). There were no significant differences between groups in new symptoms after drug administration.
Conclusions: No significant differences were observed in the effects of baloxavir or the NAIs on fever.
