Antibiotic use by clinical presentation across all healthcare providers in rural Burkina Faso: a healthcare visit exit survey.

Background: To guide antibiotic stewardship interventions, understanding for what indications antibiotics are used is essential.

Methods: In rural Burkina Faso, we measured antibiotic dispensing across all healthcare providers. From October 2021 to February 2022, we surveyed patients in Nanoro district, Burkina Faso, following visits to health centres (3), pharmacies (2), informal medicine vendors (5) and inpatients in health centres. We estimated prevalence of antibiotic use and the proportion of Watch group antibiotics by provider type and by clinical presentation, assessing compliance with WHO's AWaRe Antibiotic Book. We estimated per capita antibiotic use by multiplying prevalence of antibiotic use, mean DDD per adult treatment course, and the rate of healthcare visits per 1000 inhabitants per day, estimated from a prior household survey.

Results: Outpatient antibiotic use was more frequent after health centre visits (54.8%, of which 16.5% Watch, n = 1249) than after visits to pharmacies (26.2%, 16.3% Watch, n = 328) and informal medicine vendors (26.9%, 50.0% Watch, n = 349). The frequency of antibiotic use was highest for bronchitis (79.9% antibiotic use, of which 12.6% Watch), malaria (31.9%, 23.1% Watch), gastroenteritis (76.0%, 31.7% Watch), rhinopharyngitis (40.4%, 8.3% Watch) and undifferentiated fever (77.0%, 44.8% Watch). Compliance with WHO AWaRe guidance could have averted at least 68.4% of all Watch antibiotic use in outpatients at health centres. Community-wide, 2.9 DDD (95% CI 1.9-3.9) were used per 1000 adult inhabitants per day.

Conclusions: Most Watch antibiotic use at community level or primary care deviated from WHO guidance. Antibiotic stewardship should focus on key clinical presentations and include primary care and self-medication.