Antimicrobial use in Finnish acute care hospitals: data from national prevalence survey, 2005

In Finland, use of antimicrobials in ambulatory care is moderate, but some reports suggest that hospital use is higher than in other European countries. We evaluated the amount and type of antimicrobials administered in Finnish acute care hospitals.

We analysed data collected in the national prevalence survey of nosocomial infections (NIs) during February-March 2005 in all tertiary care, all secondary care and 25% of other acute care hospitals. All inpatients present on the study day in acute care wards for adults were included (n=8234). The names and use-days of antimicrobials in Anatomical Therapeutic Class groups J01-J05 were collected on the study day and retrospectively for the previous 6 days.

On the study day, 39% of patients had received at least one, 14% at least two and 3% at least three antimicrobials; patients with NI represented 21%, 29% and 45% of these groups, respectively. The prevalence of patients receiving any antimicrobial was 53% in intensive care patients and varied in other specialties from 0% in ophthalmology to 63% in dental and oral surgery. Within a 7 day period, the total use of antibacterial agents (J01) was 64 use-days per 100 patient-days. Cephalosporins were the most frequently used antimicrobials, followed by quinolones and metronidazole.

The prevalence and spectrum of antimicrobial use in Finnish acute care hospitals were high. NI patients contributed markedly to the total usage. The NI survey with a 7 day data collection period provided insights into the use-density of antimicrobials.