Antibiotic use in primary care: indicators of consumption and drug selection

This BOLCAN article addresses antibiotic use in primary care and indicators for monitoring it. Measuring consumption is presented as an important component of efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance. The abstract cites the European Union’s goal of reducing antibiotic use by 27% by 2030; it does not specify the baseline for this comparison.

What to assess

• Antibiotic consumption in defined daily doses (DDD).
• Antibiotic selection using the World Health Organization’s AWaRe classification.
• Use of narrow-spectrum antibiotics.

The authors emphasize appropriate antibiotic prescribing and shorter treatment courses to reduce resistance. However, the abstract provides no specific regimens or treatment durations for individual infections and therefore does not support defining such regimens.

Improvements in antibiotic selection and consumption patterns in the Canary Islands’ healthcare system are also reported. The abstract does not provide quantitative results for these changes, the assessment period, or population characteristics.