Evaluation of antimicrobial stewardship activities using antibiotic spectrum coverage

Area of Science:

• Antimicrobial stewardship
• Pharmacoeconomics
• Infectious disease research

Background:

• Days of antibiotic spectrum coverage (DASC) is a tool for measuring antimicrobial use.
• DASC calculation requires days of therapy (DOT), limiting its use when patient-level data is unavailable.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define and investigate antimicrobial use spectrum coverage (AUSC) as a new measure for antimicrobial use.
• To evaluate the utility of AUSC in settings where DOT cannot be calculated.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of monthly antimicrobial prescriptions from 2016 to 2022.
• Calculation of antimicrobial use density (AUD), AUSC, DOT, and DASC.

Main Results:

• AUD, AUSC, DOT, and DASC showed an increasing trend over the study period.
• A weak negative correlation was observed between AUD and AUSC/AUD (ρ = -0.295, p = 0.006).
• No significant correlation was found between DOT and DASC/DOT (ρ = -0.093, p = 0.399).

Conclusions:

• AUSC is less beneficial than DASC when DOT data is available.
• AUSC presents a potential new measure for evaluating antimicrobial use in institutional settings lacking DOT data.