Effectiveness of an enhanced antibiotic stewardship programme among paediatric patients in a tertiary hospital in Vietnam

In 2016, the Vietnamese Ministry of Health promoted development of antimicrobial stewardship for hospitals. To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of the enhanced antibiotic stewardship programme (ASP) compared to the original ASP among paediatric patients at a tertiary hospital for infectious diseases in Vietnam. An interrupted time-series analysis was conducted to examine antibiotic use in paediatric patients aged 0–17 years admitted to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Ho Chi Minh City from April 2016 to March 2020. Outcomes measured were defined daily doses (DDDs) per 1000 patient-days; antibiotic days of therapy (DOT) per 1000 patient-days; percentage of antibiotic use by the World Health Organization Access, Watch, and Reserve (AWaRe) system; Access-to-Watch ratio; and worse clinical outcomes at discharge. Of 60,172 admissions during the study period, 28,019 received at least one antibiotic (46.6%) during hospital stay. The Watch antibiotics were the most frequently prescribed (78.1% of total antibiotic courses). The enhanced ASP did not improve antibiotic prescribing by DDDs per 1000 patient-days (risk ratio: 1.05; 95% confidence interval: 0.94–1.17) and DOT per 1000 patient-days (1.11; 0.99–1.25) compared to the original ASP. However, the percentage of Access antibiotics prescribed, and the Access-to-Watch ratio increased after the enhanced ASP (1.73; 1.38–2.17). There was no significant difference in worse clinical outcomes at discharge between the original and enhanced ASP (1.25; 0.78–2.00). The enhanced ASP had modest impact on antibiotic consumption in the paediatric population despite the improvement of Access antibiotic use and the Access-to-Watch ratio.