Table 6.
Prescribing/quality indicators used to assess the quality of antimicrobial prescribing practices in Tanzania.
| Indicator—Activity/Performance | References |
|---|---|
| Mean number of antibiotics prescribed per patient for a given diagnosis | [63,77] |
| % adherence to WHO/INRUD core prescribing indicators, including the number of encounters resulting in antibiotics being prescribed and whether antibiotics prescribed are on the current national EML | [61,78,132] |
| % of antibiotics prescribed adhering to current EML or STGs | [116,133,134,139] |
| % of non-recommended treatments prescribed | [133] |
| % of dosing of antibiotics within agreed ranges | [133] |
| % of patients prescribed the wrong medication | [116] |
| % of patients over-prescribed antimicrobials | [98,138] |
| % of patients prescribed antibiotics for infectious diseases including for respiratory tract infections/febrile illness (assessing over-prescribing) | [91,92,150,151,152] |
| % of patients prescribed ‘Watch’ antibiotics as opposed to ‘Access’ antibiotics | [98,137,139] |
| Indicator—Outcome | |
| % of clinical failures in children with febrile illness | [92,152] |
| % Secondary hospitalization or death by day 30 in children aged 2–59 months with fever and cough but without life-threatening conditions | [92] |
NB: EML = Essential Medicine List; STG = standard treatment guidelines.