The Lancet Infectious Diseases
The Lancet Infectious Diseases
5 years ago

Effect of antibiotic stewardship on the incidence of infection and colonisation with antibiotic-resistant bacteria and Clostridium difficile infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Antibiotic stewardship programmes have been shown to reduce antibiotic use and hospital costs. We aimed to evaluate evidence of the effect of antibiotic stewardship on the incidence of infections and colonisation with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Methods For this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched PubMed, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and Web of Science for studies published from Jan 1, 1960, to May 31, 2016, that analysed the effect of antibiotic stewardship programmes on the incidence of infection and colonisation with antibiotic-resistant bacteria and Clostridium difficile infections in hospital inpatients. Two authors independently assessed the eligibility of trials and extracted data. Studies involving long-term care facilities were excluded. The main outcomes were incidence ratios (IRs) of target infections and colonisation per 1000 patient-days before and after implementation of antibiotic stewardship. Meta-analyses were done with random-effect models and heterogeneity was calculated with the I 2 method. Findings We included 32 studies in the meta-analysis, comprising 9 056 241 patient-days and 159 estimates of IRs. Antibiotic stewardship programmes reduced the incidence of infections and colonisation with multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (51% reduction; IR 0·49, 95% CI 0·35–0·68; p<0·0001), extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Gram-negative bacteria (48%; 0·52, 0·27–0·98; p=0·0428), and meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (37%; 0·63, 0·45–0·88; p=0·0065), as well as the incidence of C difficile infections (32%; 0·68, 0·53–0·88; p=0·0029). Antibiotic stewardship programmes were more effective when implemented with infection control measures (IR 0·69, 0·54–0·88; p=0·0030), especially hand-hygiene interventions (0·34, 0·21–0·54; p<0·0001), than when implemented alone. Antibiotic stewardship did not affect the IRs of vancomycin-resistant enterococci and quinolone-resistant and aminoglycoside-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. Significant heterogeneity between studies was detected, which was partly explained by the type of interventions and co-resistance patterns of the target bacteria. Interpretation Antibiotic stewardship programmes significantly reduce the incidence of infections and colonisation with antibiotic-resistant bacteria and C difficile infections in hospital inpatients. These results provide stakeholders and policy makers with evidence for implementation of antibiotic stewardship interventions to reduce the burden of infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Funding German Center for Infection Research.

Publisher URL: www.sciencedirect.com/science

DOI: S1473309917303250

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.