Impact of China's essential medicines scheme and zero‐mark‐up policy on antibiotic prescriptions in county hospitals
A mixed methods study
Abstract
In rural Guangxi, a natural experiment compared one county hospital which implemented the policy with a comparison hospital which did not. All outpatient and inpatient records in 2011 and 2014 were extracted from the two hospitals. Primary outcome indicator was antibiotic prescribing rate (APR) among children aged 2–14 presenting in outpatients with a primary diagnosis of upper respiratory tract infection (URTI). The authors organised independent physician reviews to determine inappropriate prescribing for inpatients. Difference‐in‐difference analyses based on multivariate regressions were used to compare APR over time after adjusting potential confounders. They conducted 12 in‐depth interviews with paediatricians, hospital directors and health officials.
This research is supported by the Department for International Development’s COMDIS–HSD Programme which is led by the University of Leeds
Citation
Xiaolin Wei, Jia Lin, Walley, J.D, Zhang, Z. Hicks, J.P. Zhou, Y. Sun, Q. Zeng, J. Lin, M (2017) Impact of China’s essential medicines scheme and zero‐mark‐up policy on antibiotic prescriptions in county hospitals: a mixed methods study. Tropical Medicine and International Health Volume 22, Issue9 September 2017 Pages 1166-1174