Point prevalence survey of antibiotic consumption across three hospitals in Ghana

Actionable data on antimicrobial use is important when planning strategic interventions such as antimicrobial stewardship to address the challenge of drug resistance, particularly in resource-constrained settings.

To assess the prevalence of antibiotic use, the pattern of commonly used antibiotics and patient factors that may be associated with the increased use of antibiotics in the study hospitals.

This was a cross-sectional study conducted using the WHO Methodology for Point Prevalence Surveys in hospitals. Chi-squared analysis, Fisher's exact test and logistic regression were employed to analyse statistically the data obtained.

The overall prevalence of antibiotic use in the hospitals was 60.5%. The commonest indications for antibiotic recommendations were community-acquired infections (36.5%), surgical prophylaxis (26.1%) and hospital-acquired infections (15.7%), among others. Very few (2.7%) of the patients had their samples taken for culture and susceptibility testing to guide therapy. Penicillins (48.7%), cephalosporins (23.5%) and fluoroquinolones (17.4%) were the most commonly prescribed antibiotics. Concurrent malaria infection [adjusted OR (AOR) 0.33, 95% CI 0.11-0.94, P = 0.04] and increasing age (AOR 0.98, 95% CI 0.96-1.00, P = 0.02) were associated with lower risk of antibiotic use.

The prevalence of antibiotic consumption in the hospitals was lower than that reported in similar studies in Ghana, but high relative to some reports from high-income countries. Most antibiotic therapy was empirical and not guided by culture and susceptibility testing. There is the need for application of the WHO AWaRe classification for the selection of antibiotics and increased use of culture and susceptibility data to guide infectious disease therapy.