Is there any difference in quality of prescribing between antibacterials and antifungals? Results from the first global point prevalence study (Global PPS) of antimicrobial consumption and resistance from 53 countries.

OBJECTIVES

To compare the quality of antibacterial with antifungal prescribing in the world.

METHODS

Data from the global point prevalence study (Global PPS) were used. The Global PPS took place on any one day between February and June 2015 in 335 participating hospitals from 53 countries. It collected demographic data on patients treated with antimicrobials and data on prescription characteristics of the antimicrobials. For the present study, the quality of antibiotic prescription was compared with antifungal prescription using logistic regression analysis. The following indicators were compared: the presence of the reason for prescription and stop/review date in notes, and compliance with a local guideline.

RESULTS

There were 48565 antimicrobial prescriptions for 34731 patients [median age 63 years (range 0-106); 52.6% male] in the Global PPS. Among these antimicrobials, 43513 (89.6%) were antibacterials and 2062 were antifungals for systematic use, and these data were used in this study. Reasons for prescriptions [77.7% versus 71.8%, OR 1.4 (95% CI 1.2-1.5)] and stop/review dates [38.3% versus 31.9%, OR 1.3 (1.2-1.5)] were found more often in notes for antibacterials than for antifungals. Antibacterials were prescribed less often according to local guidelines than antifungals [57.0% versus 71.0%, OR 0.6 (0.5-0.6)].

CONCLUSIONS

There are differences in the quality of antibacterial and antifungal prescribing and we identified opportunities that can be used to improve the quality of antimicrobial prescribing.