Antibiotics and the quality indicators for outpatient antibiotic use in Slovakia.

The aims of this study was to compare the data on the consumption of antibiotics in the outpatient care sector for Slovakia from 2019 to 2020 and to calculate quality indicators for outpatient antibiotic use. The data source on the consumption of antibiotics (ATC group J01), is the sales data from the NCZI. The main indicator describing the consumption of antibacterials for systemic use is the number of DDDs per 1000 inhabitants per day (DID). The data released by the European Centre for Disease Protection were used as the source for antibiotic consumption for 2019. The most frequently consumed antibacterials for systemic use in the outpatient care sector in 2020 were other beta-lactam antibacterials (J01D); macrolides, lincosamides and streptogramins (J01); and betalactam antibacterials, penicillins (J01C), with the levels of 3.30 DID, 3.30 DID and 3.27 DID, respectively. Consumption levels of 1.66 DID for tetracyclines (J01A), 1.14 DID for quinolone antibacterials (J01M), 0.41 DID for sulfonamides and trimethoprim (J01E), 0.07 DID for other antibacterials (J01X), and 0.01 DID for other antibiotics (J01B, J01G and J01R combined) can be seen. Overall, antibiotic consumption in the outpatient care sector did significantly change in Slovakia from 2019 to 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.