ArticleAntibiotics (Basel, Switzerland)2024
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Inpatient Antibiotic and Antifungal Drug Prescribing Volumes in Germany.
Article in Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland), 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- Antibiotic consumption patterns in acute care hospitals: an integrated analysis using regression modelling combining data from two surveillance systems, Germany, 2022.Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin · 2025Article
- Kinetic Patterns of Antibiotic Consumption in German Acute Care Hospitals from 2017 to 2023.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- An in-depth analysis of antimicrobial prescription quality in 10 non-university hospitals, in southwest Germany, 2021.Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin · 2024Article
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6 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundPrevious studies found that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had a variable impact on the consumption of antimicrobial drugs in human medicine, with trends in several European countries differing between community and inpatient prescribing.
aimThis study analysed changes in the volumes and use density of antibacterial and antifungal drugs dispensed in acute care hospitals in Germany between 2019 and 2022.
methodsSurveillance data for the four years available from 279 hospitals were expressed as the total volumes of daily doses or as use density (daily doses per 100 patient/occupied bed days) per year and analysed descriptively, using recommended hospital-adapted daily dose definitions (RDDs) and (as sensitivity analysis) WHO/ATC-defined daily dose definitions (DDD). Hospitals were stratified according to size (number of beds), university affiliation, and location (East, West, South).
resultsThere were significant decreases in both the total number of patient days and antibacterial drug volumes in 2020 through 2022 compared with 2019. The relative changes between 2019 and 2020, 2021, and 2022 were -12.8%, -13.5%, and -13.3% for patient days, and -9.7%, -11.0%, and -10.1% for antibacterial RDDs, respectively. Broad-spectrum betalactams, notably piperacillin-tazobactam and carbapenems, increased in volume, unlike most other drug classes. The resulting antibacterial drug use density was slightly but significantly increased, with pooled means (and medians) of 43.3 (40.0) RDD/100 in 2019 compared to 44.8 (41.7), 44.5 (40.80), and 44.9 (41.7) RDD/100 in the years 2020 through 2022, respectively. Antifungal drug volumes and use density increased after 2019 and peaked in 2021 (the difference between 2019 and 2021 for total volumes was +6.4%, and that for pooled mean use density values was +22.9%, respectively). These trends were similar in the different hospital strata and comparable when DDDs instead of RDDs were used.
conclusionsSimilar to what has been observed in a majority of European countries, the total volume of antibacterial drug use in German acute care hospitals decreased with the pandemic, without a rebound phenomenon in 2022. In association with restricted hospital capacities and presumably more immunocompromised general medicine patients, however, inpatient prescribing of (primarily broad-spectrum) antibacterials and of antifungal drugs increased.
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