Study type

Study topic

Human medicinal product

Study type

Non-interventional study

Scope of the study

Drug utilisation

Data collection methods

Secondary use of data
Non-interventional study

Non-interventional study design

Cohort
Other

Non-interventional study design, other

Retrospective study
Study drug and medical condition

Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) code

(J01A) TETRACYCLINES
TETRACYCLINES
(J01C) BETA-LACTAM ANTIBACTERIALS, PENICILLINS
BETA-LACTAM ANTIBACTERIALS, PENICILLINS
(J01DD) Third-generation cephalosporins
Third-generation cephalosporins
(J01F) MACROLIDES, LINCOSAMIDES AND STREPTOGRAMINS
MACROLIDES, LINCOSAMIDES AND STREPTOGRAMINS
(J01G) AMINOGLYCOSIDE ANTIBACTERIALS
AMINOGLYCOSIDE ANTIBACTERIALS
(J01MB) Other quinolones
Other quinolones
(J01XX) Other antibacterials
Other antibacterials
Population studied

Short description of the study population

The study focused on population-level drug utilisation of antibiotics and patient-level drug utilisation analysis.
The population-level analysis includes individuals with 365 days of database history between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2021, examining the prevalence and incidence of antibiotic use.
The patient-level analysis includes new users of antibiotics who have not used the antibiotic for 30 days between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2021, with at least 365 days of visibility prior to their first antibiotic prescription/dispensing.

Age groups

Term newborn infants (0 – 27 days)
Infants and toddlers (28 days – 23 months)
Children (2 to < 12 years)
Adolescents (12 to < 18 years)
Adults (18 to < 46 years)
Adults (46 to < 65 years)
Adults (65 to < 75 years)
Adults (75 to < 85 years)
Adults (85 years and over)

Estimated number of subjects

30000000
Study design details

Main study objective

To investigate the incidence and prevalence of use of antibiotics (from the WHO Watch list) stratified by calendar year, age, sex and country/database during the study period 2012-2021. To explore duration of antibiotic use as well as indication for antibiotic prescribing/dispensing.

Data analysis plan

Population-level antibiotic use: Annual period prevalence of antibiotic use and annual incidence rates per 100,000 person years. Patient-level antibiotic use: Large-scale patient-level characterisation will be conducted. Index date will be the date of the first prescription of the specific antibiotic for each person. Frequency of indication at index date will be assessed. Cumulative treatment duration will be estimated and the minimum, p25, median, p75, and maximum will be provided. For all analyses a minimum cell count of 5 will be used when reporting results, with any smaller counts obscured.
Documents
Study results
English (4.2 MB - PDF)View document
Study report
English (1.14 MB - PDF)View document