Trends and Correlation Between Antimicrobial Resistance and Antibiotics Consumption in a Specialist Children's Hospital from 2016 to 2021.

PURPOSE

To explore the trends and correlation between antibiotics consumption and antimicrobial resistance in children in a specialist hospital from 2016-2021 in China.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

This retrospective study investigated data on the consumption of antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance in children. Antibiotics consumption was expressed as defined daily doses (DDDs)/1000 patient-days based on the Guidelines for Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical. The trends in antibiotics consumption and antimicrobial resistance rates were analyzed by linear regression, while Spearman correlation analysis was employed to evaluate their correlations.

RESULTS

An increasing trend in the annual consumption of carbapenems and monobactams was detected (all <0.05). A significant upward trend was detected in the annual resistance rates of to ciprofloxacin, to ceftriaxone, to carbapenems, to carbapenems, to ceftazidime, and to cefepime, while the annual resistance rates of to carbapenems had a significant downward trend (all <0.05). The consumption of cephalosporin/β-lactamase inhibitor (C/BLI) combinations and carbapenems had significant positive correlations with the resistance rates of to carbapenems (=0.763, <0.001; =0.806, <0.001), to carbapenems (=0.675, <0.001; =0.417, =0.043), and to ceftazidime (=0.625, =0.001; =0.753, <0.001), respectively. Also, increasing consumption of monobactams was related to the upward resistance rates of to carbapenems (=0.557, =0.005) and to carbapenems (=0.507, = 0.011).

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrated significant positive associations between antibiotics consumption and specific antimicrobial resistance rates. The current findings pointed out some directions to pursue in controlling the prevalence of certain resistant bacterial strains in children.