OBJECTIVES

: This study aims to explore whether the utilization rate of antibiotics in primary clinics is affected by medical department and geographical location. We also analyzed the correlation between medical-level factors, county-level factors, and antibiotic use rates.

METHODS

: This study used a retrospective study design. We collected antibiotics utilization data (in the third quarter of 2017) from a total of 8,026 Western medicine primary clinics across Taiwan from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Medical Quality Information Open Network. The number of clinics, clinics and hospitals in each administrative area are also collected. We also collected data on the population of various administrative regions in Taiwan to calculate the degree of urbanization and aging population in each administrative region. This study used the 2-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) method to analyze whether there is a significant difference in antibiotic usage among different medical departments and different administrative regions. We also used Hierarchical Linear Modeling to analyze the correlation between medical-level factors, county-level factors and antibiotic use rate.

RESULTS

: This study found that the antibiotic use rate was significantly different between different medical departments and different administrative regions, and the interaction between the medical department and the administrative region and the antibiotic usage rate was significantly correlated. There was a significant positive correlation between the total amount of prescriptions in the clinic and the rate of antibiotic use. Regarding the administrative region where the clinic is located, the degree of urbanization and antibiotic utilization rate showed a significant positive correlation, while other factors were not significantly related to the antibiotic use rate.

CONCLUSIONS

: Antibiotic use rate has significant differences in geography. The higher the total prescription amount of the clinic, the higher the degree of urbanization in the administrative area where the clinic is located, and the higher the antibiotic use rate.