Relationship between antimicrobial use and resistance in E.coli bacteraemia

Antibiotics are essential for healthcare but, increasingly, bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics making infections difficult to treat. In the population, increased use of antibiotics increases resistance but surprisingly little is known about the effect of individual antibiotic exposure. In this study we will analyse anonymised information (so we can’t tell who individuals are), including age and sex, previous hospital admissions and antibiotics prescribed in the previous year, on patients admitted to hospital with specific bloodstream infections. We will calculate their risk of resistance associated with antibiotic use, information which can be used to improve antibiotic prescribing guidelines.