Community Antibiotic Use in Italy, 2013-2018

Italy's community antibiotic consumption data from 2013 to 2018, published by the Italian Medicines Agency. The study reports consumption in Defined Daily Doses (DDD), prescriptions, and prevalence of use across geographical areas and age groups. It provides insights to guide interventions aimed at reducing antimicrobial resistance.

Use Cases

• Analyzing geographical disparities in antibiotic use based on reported DDD rates for North, Center, and South Italy
• Studying seasonal patterns of antibiotic consumption linked to flu syndrome incidence peaks
• Investigating antibiotic use across age groups, particularly high utilization in pediatric and elderly populations
• Evaluating the impact of national action plans on antimicrobial resistance using longitudinal consumption metrics

Strengths

• Provides specific consumption metrics: 16.1 DDD per 1,000 inhabitants per day for 2018
• Includes detailed breakdowns by geography (North: 12.7 DDD, Center: 16.9 DDD, South: 20.4 DDD) and age
• Covers a six-year time range from 2013 to 2018

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download

Provenance

Source

Italian Medicines Agency

Collection Method

Analysis of reimbursed antibiotic prescriptions dispensed by community pharmacies

Time Range

2013-2018

Geography

Italy