• Daisuke Sato, Tadahiro Goto, Kazuaki Uda, Ryosuke Kumazawa, Hiroki Matsui, and Hideo Yasunaga.
• Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Health Economics, School of Public Health, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
• Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2021 Mar 1; 42 (3): 280-286.

ObjectiveTo examine whether the issue and dissemination of national guidelines in the Manual of Antimicrobial Stewardship had an impact on reducing antibiotic use for acute respiratory tract infection (ARTI) and gastroenteritis.MethodAn interrupted time-series analysis was performed using a large nationwide database from June 2016 to June 2018. Outpatients with ARTI or gastroenteritis aged ≥6 years were identified. The outcome measures were any antibiotic use and broad-spectrum antibiotic use. The season-adjusted changes in the rate of antibiotic prescriptions for 2 periods before and after the guideline issue date were examined.ResultsThere were 13,177,735 patients with ARTI and 300,565 patients with gastroenteritis during the study period. Among patients with ARTI, there was a significant downward trend in antibiotic use during the 2-year study period (-0.06% per week; 95% CI, -0.07% to -0.04%). However, there was no significant change in trends of antibiotic use between the pre-issue period and post-issue period (trend difference, -0.01% per week; 95% CI, -0.10% to 0.07%). Similarly, for patients with gastroenteritis, there was no significant change in the trends of antibiotic use between the pre-issue period and post-issue period (trend difference, -0.02% per week; 95% CI, -0.04% to 0.01%). Similar associations were observed in analyses for broad-spectrum antibiotic use.ConclusionsDespite the issue of national guidelines to promote the appropriate use of antibiotics, there were no significant changes in trends of antibiotic use for outpatients with ARTI or gastroenteritis between the pre-issue and post-issue periods.

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