Point prevalence survey of antibiotic utilization in secondary care hospital in the United Arab Emirates

The present study was carried out to identify and report the pattern of antibiotics prescribing to determine the adherence to the international empirical and therapeutic guidelines of antibiotic use.

A point prevalence survey took place at a selected date of January 26, 2020, in which data collection was performed to all the patients present in the hospital who used at least one systemic antibiotic agent as an inpatient from 00:00 am until midnight of that day. This was performed using European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Consumption (ESAC - audit tool). The participated hospital in this point prevalence study represents a major government hospital in the UAE. Descriptive statistics were used and results were expressed using standard statistical methods.

Out of the 125 hospitalized patients, a total of 41 (32.8%) patients were included in the survey and treated with different trends of antibiotics on the date point prevalence survey. The total number prescribed antibiotics was 54 with a higher percentage of treatment indication (70.4%), compared to prophylaxis indication (29.6%). The combinations of penicillin's win in being the most commonly used agents by a percent of 31.5%, including the use of Amoxicillin-clavulanic acid by 22.2% and Piperacillin-tazobactam with 9.3%. The compliance with local/international guidelines accounts for 78.0% of the treated & prophylaxis patients.

Considerable results have been obtained which can assure the quality improvement of the antibiotic use in the studied hospital.