A modified method for measuring antibiotic use in healthcare settings: implications for antibiotic stewardship and benchmarking.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether adjusting the denominator of the common hospital antibiotic use measurement unit (defined daily doses/100 bed-days) by including age-adjusted comorbidity score (100 bed-days/age-adjusted comorbidity score) would result in more accurate and meaningful assessment of hospital antibiotic use.


METHODS
The association between the monthly sum of age-adjusted comorbidity and monthly antibiotic use was measured using time-series analysis (January 2008 to June 2012). For the purposes of conducting internal benchmarking, two antibiotic usage datasets were constructed, i.e. 2004-07 (first study period) and 2008-11 (second study period). Monthly antibiotic use was normalized per 100 bed-days and per 100 bed-days/age-adjusted comorbidity score.


RESULTS
Results showed that antibiotic use had significant positive relationships with the sum of age-adjusted comorbidity score (P = 0.0004). The results also showed that there was a negative relationship between antibiotic use and (i) alcohol-based hand rub use (P = 0.0370) and (ii) clinical pharmacist activity (P = 0.0031). Normalizing antibiotic use per 100 bed-days contributed to a comparative usage rate of 1.31, i.e. the average antibiotic use during the second period was 31% higher than during the first period. However, normalizing antibiotic use per 100 bed-days per age-adjusted comorbidity score resulted in a comparative usage rate of 0.98, i.e. the average antibiotic use was 2% lower in the second study period. Importantly, the latter comparative usage rate is independent of differences in patient density and case mix characteristics between the two studied populations.


CONCLUSIONS
The proposed modified antibiotic measure provides an innovative approach to compare variations in antibiotic prescribing while taking account of patient case mix effects.
Clinical and Practice Research Group, School of Pharmacy, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT9 7BL, Northern Ireland , UK.
Mamoon A
MA
Aldeyab
James C
JC
McElnay
Michael G
MG
Scott
William J
WJ
Lattyak
Feras W
FW
Darwish Elhajji
Motasem A
MA
Aldiab
Fidelma A
FA
Magee
Geraldine
G
Conlon
Mary P
MP
Kearney
D000328:Adult; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D019985:Benchmarking; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006268:Health Facilities; D006801:Humans
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents
age-adjusted comorbidity index; antibiotic measure; pharmacoepidemiology; time-series analysis