Significant Regional Differences in Antibiotic Use Across 576 US Hospitals and 11,701,326 Million Admissions, 2016–2017
Authors: Goodman Katherine , Cosgrove Sara , Pineles Lisa , Magder Laurence , Anderson Deverick John , Ashley Elizabeth Dodds , Polk Ronald , Quan Hude , Trick William , Woeltje Keith , Leekha Surbhi , Harris Anthony 
Published: November 2020

Background: Reducing inappropriate antibiotic use is critical for fighting antibiotic resistance. Quantifying the amount and diversity of antibiotic use in US hospitals is foundational to these efforts but hampered by limited national surveillance. The current study aims to address this knowledge gap by examining adult inpatient antibiotic usage, including regional, facility, and case-mix differences, across 576 hospitals and nearly 12 million encounters in 2016–2017. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients aged ≥18 years discharged from hospitals in the Premier Healthcare Database, a repository of nearly 1 of every 4 annual US hospitalizations, between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2017. Detailed hospital- and patient-level data were extracted for each admission. Facilities were classified geographically by census division. Using daily antibiotic charge data, we mapped antibiotics to 18 mutually exclusive classes and to categories based upon spectrum of activity. Patient-level data were transformed into hospital case-mix variables (eg, hospital mean patient age), and relationships between antibiotic days of therapy (DOTs), and these and other facility-level variables were evaluated in negative binomial regression models. Results: The study included 11,701,326 adult admissions, totaling 64,064,632 patient days across 576 US hospitals. Overall, antibiotics were used in 65% of all hospitalizations, at a rate of 870 DOTs per 1,000 patient days. The most commonly used classes per patient days were

β-lactam/β-lactamase inhibitor combinations (206 DOTs), third- and fourth-generation cephalosporins (128 DOTs), and glycopeptides (113 DOTs) (Fig. 1). By spectrum of activity, antipseudomonal agents (245 DOTs) were the most common. Crude usage rates varied by geographic region (Fig. 2). In multivariable analyses, teaching hospitals, and/or larger bed sizes were independently associated with lower use across a range of antibiotic classes (adjusted IRR ranges, 0.90–0.94 and 0.96–0.98, respectively). Significant regional differences also persisted. Compared to the South Atlantic region (chosen as the reference category because it had the largest representation in the cohort), rates of total antibiotic use were 6%, 15%, and 18% lower on average in the Pacific, New England, and the Middle Atlantic regions, respectively. By class, carbapenems reflected the most geographic variability. Conclusions: In a large, diverse cohort of US hospitals, adult inpatients received antibiotics at a rate similar to, but higher than, previously published estimates. In adjusted models, lower antibiotic use was frequently associated with facilities likely to have robust antibiotic stewardship programs—those with teaching status and larger bed size. Further research to understand other reasons for regional differences in antibiotic use such as different rates of resistance is needed.

Funding: This work was supported by Funding: from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) (R01-HS026205 to A.D.H.).

Disclosures: None