Antibiotic misuse: How to evaluate the costs?

Area of Science:

• Health Economics
• Infectious Diseases
• Hospital Management

Background:

• Antibiotic misuse in hospitals incurs significant costs.
• Health economic data is vital for informing antibiotic stewardship programs.
• Limited studies in France have assessed the economic burden of antibiotic misuse.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify methodological tools for assessing the costs of antibiotic misuse in hospitals.
• To inform the development of a reference methodology for valuing antibiotic misuse costs.

Main Methods:

• Comprehensive literature review of major electronic medical databases.
• Development of a relevance index to evaluate the quality of selected articles.
• Analysis of 35 selected articles focusing on antibiotic misuse in hospitals.

Main Results:

• Most studies focused on inadequate antibiotic choice, treatment duration, or dosage.
• Few studies performed medical/economic evaluations of specific interventions.
• Limited relevance of existing studies due to lack of defined economic objectives and cost calculation methods.

Conclusions:

• Key factors for measuring antibiotic misuse (molecule choice, dosage) and associated costs (over/under prescription, hospital stay) can form a basis for a reference methodology.
• A standardized methodology will aid hospital decision-makers in justifying resource allocation for antimicrobial stewardship.
• Further research is needed to develop and apply a robust methodology for valuing antibiotic misuse costs.