Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy doi:10.1093/jac/dkl147 Hospital consumption of antibiotics in 15 European countries: results of the ESAC Retrospective Data Collection (1997–2002)

Objectives: To collect reliable, comparable and publicly available data on hospital use of antibiotics in Europe aggregated at the national level (1997–2002). Methods: Consumption data of systemic antibiotics in Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) class J01 were collected and expressed in defined daily doses (DDD) per 1000 inhabitants per day. Valid data for 2002 were available for 15 countries, and 6 year trends for 10 countries. Comparison with ambulatory care (AC) consumption data was possible in 14 countries. Results: In 2002, median national hospital antibiotic consumption in Europe was 2.1 DDD/1000 inhabitants