ABSTRACT
OBJE CTIVE To inv estigate the antibiotic use and rationality for children in community health service institutions from Beijing ，and to provide reference for promoting rational use of antibiotics in primary healthcare institutions. METHODS All the prescriptions for children from primary healthcare institutions in 2019 were extracted from prescription review system of community health service institutions in Beijing. The use of antibiotics was described according to the related indicators of the World Health Organization/International Network for Rational Use of Drug （WHO/INRUD）. The structure of antibiotics use was analyzed according to the anatomical therapeutic chemical （ATC）classification as well as the WHO AWaRe classification and diagnosis. RESULTS A total of 288 primary healthcare institutions and 10 422 prescriptions for children were included. The number of institutions in high-income areas ，middle-income areas and low-income areas were 119，80 and 89 respectively，and the number of prescriptions involved were 2 430，2 163 and 5 829 respectively，including 1 447 prescriptions involving antibiotics （13.9％）. Among 1 447 prescriptions，the rate of prescriptions involving combined use of antibiotics was 1.4％（20 pieces）；the rate of prescriptions involving antibiotics injection was 9.7％（141 pieces）；4.8％ antibiotics prescriptions were rated as unreasonable （69 pieces）. The three most commonly used antibiotics were the macrolides （40.2％），the second-generation cephalosporins （26.5％） and the third-generati on cephalosporins （23.4％）. The proportion of antibioti cs prescriptions from groups of access ，caution， reserve and not recommended were 9.1％，92.1％，0.3％，and 0， respectively. The rate of antibiotics prescriptions fortonsillitis was the highest （31.9％ ）. Among 69 irrationalantibiotics prescriptions ，main of them were irrational drug use （56 pieces，81.2％）. CONCLUSIONS The rate of antibiotics prescriptions for children in primary healthcare institutions from Beijing is lower than the standard of WHO antibiotics prescription rate （20.0％-26.8％），but the use rate of antibiotics at caution grade is too high.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: To identify the patterns of antibiotic use and irrational antibiotic prescriptions in primary healthcare institutions (PHIs) in Dongcheng District of Beijing, China. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All primary healthcare institutions (7 community healthcare centres and 59 community healthcare stations in total) in Dongcheng District were included in the study. Prescription data from January 2015 to December 2018 was derived from the Beijing Prescription Reviewing System of Primary healthcare institutions and analysed retrospectively. The antibiotic prescription rate was calculated and cases of irrational antibiotic prescriptions were identified. RESULTS: We extracted 11,166,905 prescriptions from the database. Only 189,962 prescriptions were included in the study, among which 9167 (4.8%) contained antibiotics. The antibiotic prescription rate fell from 5.2% in 2015 to 4.1% in 2018 while irrational antibiotic prescription rate increased from 10.4 to 11.8%. Acute Bronchitis was the most prevalent diagnosis (17.6%) for antibiotic prescriptions, followed by Unspecified Acute Respiratory Tract Infection (14.4%), Acute Tonsillitis (9.9%), and Urinary Tract Infection (6.4%). Around 10% of the prescriptions for the top 7 diagnoses identified were rated as irrational. Cephalosporins, fluoroquinolones, and macrolides were the most prescribed antibiotics, which accounted for 89.3% of all antibiotic prescriptions. Of all the antibiotic prescriptions, 7531 were reviewed, among which 939 (12.5%) were rated as irrational because of antibiotic use. Among all the irrational prescriptions, prescriptions with inappropriate antibiotic use and dosage accounted for the majority (54.4%). CONCLUSION: Although a relatively low level of antibiotic utilization was found in PHIs in Dongcheng District of Beijing, the utilization patterns differed considerably from developed countries and irrational prescriptions remained. Considering the imbalanced allocation of medical resources between primary healthcare setting and secondary and tertiary hospitals, there need to be more efforts invested in regions with different levels of economic development.
