Matus Ferech

TL;DR: Outpatient antibiotic use in 26 countries in Europe between Jan 1, 1997, and Dec 31, 2002 was investigated by calculating the number of defined daily doses (DDD) per 1000 inhabitants per day according to WHO anatomic therapeutic chemical classification and DDD measurement methodology, and the ecological association between antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance rates was assessed using Spearman's correlation coefficients.

TL;DR: The ESAC project established for the first time a credible alternative to industry sources for the collection of internationally comparable data on antibiotic use in Europe, based on cooperation between regulatory authorities, scientific societies, health insurers and professional organizations.

TL;DR: Routine surveillance data indicate a relation between use and resistance and support interventions designed to reduce antimicrobial consumption at a national level in Europe.

TL;DR: The European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Consumption (ESAC) project collects data on antibacterial use in Europe, applying the Anatomic Therapeutic Chemical classification system and defined daily dose methodology, as recommended by the World Health Organization.

TL;DR: 12 of the proposed ESAC-based quality indicators for outpatient antibiotics use in Europe have face validity and are potentially applicable and could be used to better describe antibiotic use in ambulatory care and assess the quality of national antibiotic prescribing patterns in Europe.