A pilot protocol for surveillance of infection and antibiotic prescribing in primary healthcare across the globe: Antibiotic Prescribing in Primary Healthcare Point Prevalence Survey (APC-PPS)

Journal article

Little data is available from the primary healthcare setting in low- and middle-income countries to describe the burden of clinical infections and antibiotic prescribing proportions for those infections. The AWaRe Antibiotic Book provides a framework for assessing antibiotic prescribing in primary healthcare but requires understanding both frequency of clinical infections and their antibiotic prescribing proportions. The Antibiotic Prescribing in Primary Healthcare Point Prevalence Survey (APC-PPS) project is a series of point prevalence surveys conducted at primary healthcare facilities in LMICs to capture the frequency of consultation for different clinical infections and diagnoses and the frequency and type of antibiotic prescribing associated with these infections in primary healthcare facilities.

This study aims to assess the feasibility of using a PPS methodology to collect data on clinical presentation and antibiotic prescribing in primary healthcare settings. The data collected are necessary to be able to summarise relative rates of presentation of different clinical infections and antibiotic prescribing practices to inform global estimates of antibiotic use and inform the development of surveillance methods and representative sampling frames.

Each site will conduct 6-8 point prevalence surveys over the course of 12 months. Completely anonymous data on age, sex, relevant comorbidities, infection symptoms and diagnoses and antibiotic prescription are collected for patients of all ages with acute infection symptoms (up to 14 days of symptoms) who present to the facility on the day of the survey. No identifiable data will be collected from individuals. Data is collected via ODK Collect and stored in a secure ODK Cloud server hosted by City St. George’s, University of London. Sites will be active between early 2023- end 2024, with regular interim data analysis scheduled and final data analysis planned by mid 2025. All required local and national ethical and regulatory approvals will be obtained prior to sites starting.

Authors: Cook, A; Goelen, J; Moore, CE; Martin, J; Pouwels, KB

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: F1000Research
• Journal: Wellcome Open Research
• Volume: 10
• Article number: 26
• Publication date: 2025-01-21
• Acceptance date: 2026-04-24
• DOI: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.23420.2
• EISSN: 2398-502X
• ISSN: 2398-502X
• Language: English
• Keywords: primary care; antibiotic prescribing; infections; aware system; point prevalence survey (PPS); antibiotic use; low and middle income countries (LMIC)