Antituberculosis drug prescribing for inpatients in a national tuberculosis hospital in China, 2011–2015

•Comprehensive overview of anti-TB drug prescribing in a national TB hospital in China (2011–2015).•Prescription of anti-TB drugs varied across clinical diagnostic categories, treatment history and susceptibility profiles.•The WHO-endorsed standard regimen should be more extensively employed where drug susceptibility testing is unavailable. This study aimed to describe trends in antituberculosis drug prescribing for inpatients from 2011–2015 in a Chinese national tuberculosis (TB) hospital. This retrospective study, performed in March 2016, reviewed the medical records of all inpatients from Beijing Chest Hospital diagnosed with TB between 2011–2015. Medication used for TB treatment during the inpatient period was recorded. A total of 11465 inpatients were enrolled in the study. The most frequently prescribed drug for inpatients was isoniazid (71.2%; 8164/11465), followed by ethambutol (67.5%; 7738/11465), pyrazinamide (59.7%; 6839/11465) and rifampicin (40.0%; 4589/11465). In addition, amikacin (16.5%; 1889/11465), levofloxacin (33.0%; 3789/11465), para-aminosalicylic acid (12.4%; 1422/11465) and clarithromycin (3.5%; 406/11465) were the most common drugs used in the treatment of inpatients for Group II, III, IV and V drugs, respectively. A significant increasing trend in prescribing was found for rifampicin, pyrazinamide, capreomycin, moxifloxacin, prothionamide, para-aminosalicylic acid, cycloserine, clofazimine and linezolid, respectively, whilst there was a significant decreasing trend in the rate of prescribing of ethambutol, amikacin, levofloxacin, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid and clarithromycin during the 5-year study period (Ptrend