Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Inpatient Antibiotic Consumption in Switzerland

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze inpatient antibiotic consumption during the first 16 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland. The entire period (January 2018–June 2021) was divided into the prepandemic period, the first and second waves, and the intermediate period. In the first year of the pandemic, total overall inpatient antibiotic consumption measured in defined daily doses (DDD) per 100 bed-days remained stable (+1.7%), with a slight increase in ICUs of +4.2%. The increase in consumption of broad-spectrum antibiotics was +12.3% overall and 17.3% in ICUs. The segmented regression model of monthly data revealed an increase in overall antibiotic consumption during the first wave but not during the second wave. In the correlation analysis performed in a subset of the data, a significant positive association was found between broad-spectrum antibiotic consumption and an increasing number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients (p = 0.018). Restricting this dataset to ICUs, we found significant positive correlations between the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients and total antibiotic consumption (p = 0.007) and broad-spectrum antibiotic consumption (p < 0.001). In conclusion, inpatient antibiotic use during the different periods of the COVID-19 pandemic varied greatly and was predominantly notable for broad-spectrum antibiotics.

Epidemiology of bloodstream infections caused by extended-spectrum cephalosporin-resistant Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae in Switzerland, 2015-2022: secular trends and association with the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Conversely, the rise of ESCR-KP, primarily a pathogen acquired within healthcare settings, might be linked to the heightened usage of antibiotics in inpatients [21,25], to the occurrence of hospital outbreaks, as reported in several studies [27,28], and to a challenges such as patients over ow and understa ng. Notably, our in-depth analysis did not reveal any discernible association between the increase in hospital occupancy due to COVID-19 patients and the incidence or the resistance rates of the bacteria included.…”

Hospital Antibiotic Consumption before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Hungary

“…Restrictions and people's fear of the virus could have also contributed to the decrease in hospital admissions. Studies on hospital antibiotic use during the pandemic years are scarce [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Most of the studies were from western European countries like Sweden, Switzerland, and Italy.…”

“…From Central Europe, only one Croatian study has been published so far [8]. Most of these studies focused on the first year [7,9,10,12,13] or months [8,11,13] of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some studies focused on a single clinical centre [12,14], one involved a subset of hospitals in the data analysis [13], while others reported national-level data from hospitals [7][8][9][10][11].…”

“…Most of these studies focused on the first year [7,9,10,12,13] or months [8,11,13] of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some studies focused on a single clinical centre [12,14], one involved a subset of hospitals in the data analysis [13], while others reported national-level data from hospitals [7][8][9][10][11]. These drug utilisation studies revealed an increase in hospital antibiotic use during the pandemic [7][8][9][10][12][13][14].…”

Bibliometric Analysis of Global Research Output on Antimicrobial Resistance among Pneumonia Pathogens (2013–2023)

“…Pneumonia pathogens have increasingly developed resistance to commonly used antibiotics [ 15 , 16 , 17 ]. The misuse and overuse of antibiotics, both in healthcare and community settings, have contributed to the development of resistant strains of bacteria, rendering traditional treatment approaches less effective [ 18 , 19 ]. This phenomenon not only complicates the management of pneumonia cases but also diminishes the success of other medical interventions that rely on antibiotics.…”