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JAC Advance Access published online on April 9, 2008
Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, doi:10.1093/jac/dkn153
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Original research

Antibiotic prescribing patterns in village health clinics across 10 provinces of Western China

Lifang Dong1, Hong Yan1,* and Duolao Wang2

1 Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Xi'an Jiaotong University College of Medicine, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710061, P.R. China 2 Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, UK

Received 5 December 2007; returned 26 February 2008; revised 28 December 2007; accepted 12 March 2008

* Corresponding author. Tel: +86-29-8265-5001; Fax: +86-29-8265-5387; E-mail: xjtu_yh.paper{at}yahoo.com.cn

Objectives: To explore antibiotic prescribing patterns in rural areas across 10 provinces of Western China and to compare the patterns among these provinces.

Methods: About 20 125 prescriptions were collected from 680 primary health clinics in villages from 40 counties in 10 provinces of Western China. Percentage of prescriptions with antibiotics and number of antibiotics per 100 prescriptions were used as measurements of antibiotic utilization.

Results: The percentage of prescriptions with antibiotics was 48.43 (range: 41.12–57.47) in the study areas. There were 49 kinds of antibiotics prescribed in total, and 17 of them accounted for 90% of all usage. The number of antibiotics per 100 prescriptions was 54.62 (range: 43.78–69.56).

Conclusions: The frequency and proportion of prescribed antibiotics in the rural areas of Western China are higher compared with the developed countries, and the patterns of antibiotic prescription differ greatly among provinces. The findings have important policy implications for recommendations on the utilization of antibiotics in China.

Key Words: antibiotic prescriptions , pharmacoepidemiology , rural population


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