Secular trend analysis of antibiotic utilisation in China’s hospitals 2011–2018, a retrospective analysis of procurement data

Background This study was aimed to explore the secular trends of antibiotic utilisation in China’s hospitals over an 8-year period. Methods We retrospectively analysed aggregated monthly antibiotic procurement data of 586 hospitals from 28 provinces in China from January 2011 to December 2018. Information including generic name, procurement amount, dosage form, strength, the route of administration, and geographical data were collected. Population weighted antibiotic utilisation were expressed in DDD per 1000 inhabitants per day (DID). WHO’s ‘Access, Watch, Reserve’ categorization was also adopted to analyse antibiotic utilisation. Results Between 2011 and 2018, total antibiotic utlisation in China’s hospitals increased by 39.6% (from 4.8 DID in 2010 to 6.7 DID in 2018). Antibiotic utilisation was stable or had moderately decreased in 13 provinces, while in the other 15 provinces they had substantially increased. Cephalosporins were the most consumed antibiotics, accounting for 26.9% of the total antibiotic utilisation (1.8 DID/6.7 DID). In 2018, antibiotics in the Access category comprised 19.4% of the total utilisation (1.3 DID/6.7 DID), where antibiotics in the Watch category comprised the largest proportion of 71.6% (4.8 DID/6.7 DID). Population-weighted antibiotic utlisation was greater in secondary hospitals than in tertiary hospitals (7.3 DID vs 6.6 DID). The utilisation of oral forms was almost two times the amount of parenteral forms in secondary hospitals, whereas in tertiary hospitals the amounts were about the same. Conclusions Despite efforts have been made towards restricting antibiotic use by the Chinese government, antibiotic utilisation demonstrated an upward trend after the medical reform. The increase of last-resort antibiotics raises serious concern for public health. Current patterns of antibiotic utilisation demonstrated that gaps are existed towards the global target set up by the WHO. To better facilitate proper antibiotic use, more efforts are needed to explore the appropriateness of antibiotic use at the individual level.