Table 2.

Drug use indicators at 146 township health centers in four Chinese provinces, 2009–2010

	Anhui			Zhejiang			Shandong			Ningxia			Total
	2009	2010		2009	2010		2009	2010		2009	2010		2009	2010
ANDPP	4.17	4.25	↑	3.57	3.3	↓*	3.37	3.28	↓	3.23	3.12	↓	3.64	3.46	↓*
PED, %	75.62	86.88	↑*	61.31	83.29	↑*	50.65	49.41	↓	55.35	60.59	↑	63.33	79.89	↑*
ANAPP	0.96	1	↑	0.79	0.75	↓*	0.73	0.71	↓*	0.72	0.81	↑*	0.81	0.8	↓
PPA, %	67.81	70.35	↑*	59.92	55.52	↓*	51.43	51.54	↑	53.15	60.38	↑*	60.26	58.48	↓*
PPI, %	51.11	50.43	↓	43.74	40.35	↓*	30.59	29.04	↓	28.36	27.97	↓	42.93	40.31	↓*
PPC, %	22.68	22.10	↓	11.91	9.22	↓*	11.09	10.70	↓	1.65	2.30	↑	13.15	11.16	↓*

Note: ↑ = 2010 − 2009 > 0; ↓ = 2010 − 2009 < 0.

ANDPP = average number of drugs per prescription; PED = percentage of drugs prescribed from the Essential Drug List; ANAPP = average number of antibiotics per prescription; PPA = percentage of prescriptions including an antibiotic; PPI = percentage of prescriptions including an injection; PPC = percentage of prescriptions including adrenal corticosteroid.

*= p < 0.05, p-value refers to t-test to compare means or exact test to compare proportion distributions between the two periods.