Outpatient antibiotic use in Europe and association with resistance: a cross-national database study

Resistance to antibiotics is a major public-health problem and antibiotic use is being increasingly recognised as the main selective pressure driving this resistance. Our aim was to assess outpatient use of antibiotics and the association with resistance.We investigated outpatient antibiotic use in 26 countries in Europe that provided internationally comparable distribution or reimbursement data, between Jan 1, 1997, and Dec 31, 2002, by...