A Multifaceted Intervention and Its Effects on Antibiotic Usage in Norwegian Nursing Homes

Abstract

We explored the impact of an antibiotic quality improvement intervention across 33 nursing homes (NHs) in one Norwegian county, compared against four control counties. This 12-month multifaceted intervention consisted of three physical conferences, including educational sessions, workshops, antibiotic feedback reports, and academic detailing sessions. We provided clinical guiding checklists to participating NHs. Pharmacy sales data served as a measure of systemic antibiotic use. The primary outcome was a change in antibiotic use in DDD/100 BD from the baseline through the intervention, assessed using linear mixed models to identify changes in antibiotic use. Total antibiotic use decreased by 15.8%, from 8.68 to 7.31 DDD/100BD (model-based estimated change (MBEC): −1.37, 95% CI: −2.35 to −0.41) in the intervention group, albeit not a significantly greater reduction than in the control counties (model-based estimated difference in change (MBEDC): −0.75, 95% CI: −1.91 to 0.41). Oral antibiotic usage for urinary tract infections (UTI-AB) decreased 32.8%, from 4.08 to 2.74 DDD/100BD (MBEC: −1.34, 95% CI: −1.85 to −0.84), a significantly greater reduction than in the control counties (MBEDC: −0.9, 95% CI: −1.28 to −0.31). The multifaceted intervention may reduce UTI-AB use in NHs, whereas adjustments in the implementation strategy may be needed to reduce total antibiotic use.