--- title: Should weight factor into antibiotic dosage? description: Most antibiotics and antimicrobial medications are prescribed to adults based on broad dosage recommendations that do not take individual body mass into account, a system... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7144909/should-weight-factor-into-antibiotic-dosage/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2010-01-14T23:30:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T11:46:46.062Z article:section: Health og:title: Should weight factor into antibiotic dosage? og:description: Most antibiotics and antimicrobial medications are prescribed to adults based on broad dosage recommendations that do not take individual body mass into account, a system... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7144909/should-weight-factor-into-antibiotic-dosage/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Should weight factor into antibiotic dosage? twitter:description: Most antibiotics and antimicrobial medications are prescribed to adults based on broad dosage recommendations that do not take individual body mass into account, a system... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Health](/section/health/) # Should weight factor into antibiotic dosage? > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=36fc61f3-f7fa-47e7-9bb6-8e116f946c94&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Jan 14, 2010 11:30 PM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Jan 14, 2010 11:30 PM UTC Most antibiotics and antimicrobial medications are prescribed to adults based on broad dosage recommendations that do not take individual body mass into account, a system that is outdated, according to an editorial published in the current issue of the British medical journal _The Lancet_. Whereas children’s antibiotic dosing is generally calculated according to body mass, for adults, no such system is in place, and for those drugs that do have body mass specific guidelines for dosing, adherence is “inadequate,” according to the authors. Drs. Matthew E. Falagas and Drosos Karageorgopoulos of the Alfa Institute of Biomedical Sciences in Athens point out that, under current practices, a 200 lb., 6’2″ man (90kg, 1.9m) diagnosed with pneumonia would receive the same dose of antibiotics as a 124 lb., 5′ woman (56kg, 1.5m) with the same condition, despite their dramatically different body sizes. While dosage according to body mass is standard in anesthetics, pediatrics, oncology and other fields, when it comes to antibiotics and antimicrobials the dosing guidelines are too broad, the authors argue, and may undermine a medications efficacy. What’s more, in the face of both widespread obesity and the increasing prevalence of antibiotic-resistance, tailoring dosage for optimal results is increasingly important. more While people with kidney trouble, children and the elderly are often studied separately during clinical trials used to determine appropriate dosing, the rest of the general population is often lumped together—resulting in broad standards for dosing that may not be optimal for all body types, Falagas and Karageorgopoulos argue. As they highlight, “\[s\]everal physiological alterations reported in obesity can affect the processes of distribution, protein binding, metabolism, and clearance of antimicrobial agents.” That is, overweight patients may need larger doses for the medication to be effective, in the same way that underweight patients may need lower doses. Of course, the authors concede, there will be hurdles to achieving this goal. Conducting and—finding funding for—studies to establish dosing guidelines will take time, and once formulas are established, doctors will be charged with the extraordinary challenge of keeping track of different equations for a broad range of medications, a possibility that could introduce frequent errors in dosing. While the authors suggest that those problems might be solved by technology—doctors using doctors using “personal digital assistants” or relying more frequently on computerized pharmacy dosing systems, already used in many hospitals, they aren’t likely to be as accessible in a local doctor’s office or primary care settings. Still, the authors say, if simple, effective guidelines can be routinely applied to children’s antibiotics and antimicrobial drugs, there must be a comparably low-tech way to achieve the same standard for grown ups. With the inescapable prevalence of obesity—[34% of Americans are obese](http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1953206,00.html), and the problem of antibiotic-resistant [super bugs](http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1926853,00.html), “a one-size-fits-all strategy for prescribing antimicrobial agents to adults is outdated,” the authors conclude. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7144909/should-weight-factor-into-antibiotic-dosage/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7144909/should-weight-factor-into-antibiotic-dosage/"},"headline":"Should weight factor into antibiotic dosage?","datePublished":"2010-01-14T23:30:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T11:46:46.062Z","description":"Most antibiotics and antimicrobial medications are prescribed to adults based on broad dosage recommendations that do not take individual body mass into account, a system...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7144909/should-weight-factor-into-antibiotic-dosage/","keywords":["Prescription","weight","antibiotics"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7144909/should-weight-factor-into-antibiotic-dosage/","name":"Should weight factor into antibiotic dosage?"}}]}] ```