In this study, we investigated the trends and patterns of antibiotic consumption (macrolides and lincosamides) in China's healthcare institutions from 2015 to 2017. The China Drug Supply Information Platform (CDSIP) was officially launched in 2015. We collected records from this national centralized bidding procurement system between 2015 and 2017. The use of J01F antibiotics (macrolides or lincosamides) was calculated in a defined daily dose per 1000 inhabitants per day (DID).Purchase data from 70,366 national medical facilities included in the CDSIP were collected. The procurement data of 66,007 medical facilities have not changed over 3 years. There is a slight decline in the consumption of J01F antibiotics, which decreased from 3.03 DID in 2015 to 2.91 DID in 2017. Azithromycin (20.6%) was the most commonly used antibiotic in 2017 among all classes, followed by clindamycin (17.9%) and erythromycin (13.7%). Parenteral antibiotics accounted for 32.0% of total antibiotic consumption and 59.6% of total antibiotics expenditure in 2017. The overall consumption of most antibiotics decreased slightly over the 3-yearstudy period. This may be owing to China's health-related policies in the past few years. A gap still exists in antibiotic use between regions and dosage forms. Further studies are needed to optimize antibiotic prescribing and reduce antibiotic resistance.
Keywords: China; antibiotic use; lincosamides; macrolides; patterns; trends.