{
  "abstract": "Background: The European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Consumption Network (ESAC-Net) offers standardised indicators to benchmark antibiotic prescribing across EU/EEA countries.Applying these metrics at sub-national level highlights geographic variability, particularly in high-use settings like Italy.This study assesses antimicrobial prescribing quality in Piedmont using ESAC-Net indicators benchmarked against national and European standards.\n\nMethods: Antibiotic consumption data (2023-2024) were extracted from regional pharmaceutical databases, across hospital and community settings.ESAC-Net indicators included the community broad-to-narrow spectrum ratio (BtN) and the proportion of broad-spectrum and/or last-resort antibiotics over total hospital consumption. Access, Watch, Reserve (AWaRe) classification was applied to both settings. Analyses were stratified for geriatric (>65 years) and paediatric (0-13 years) populations.\n\nResults: Community BtN improved from 12.66 (2023) to 10.79 (2024), surpassing the Italian average (13.6) but still more than twice the EU average (4.6, in 2024).The hospital proportion of broad-spectrum and/or last-resort antibiotic use decreased from 54% (2023) to 48% (2024), similar to Italy (52% in 2023), both still exceeding the ESAC-Net benchmark (40.1% in 2023).These trends reflect low Access antibiotics proportions in community (54.6%) and hospital (39.9%) settings, compared to ESAC-Net target (65%) and EU averages. Geriatric patients showed disproportionately high Watch antibiotics use in 2024 (49.5%), with a BtN of 15.92, versus 4.57 in paediatric patients.\n\nConclusions: Despite improvement, Piedmont’s prescribing indicators show persistent gaps versus EU standards, mirroring the Italian average. Stewardship interventions targeting geriatric populations are urgently needed. Sub-national ESAC-Net indicator monitoring is a feasible stewardship tool for countries with high intra-national heterogeneity, offering a model for comparable EU regions.\n\nKey messages: • Piedmont’s antibiotic prescribing improved but remains far from EU standards. Geriatric patients are the priority target for stewardship interventions.\n\n• Sub-national ESAC-Net monitoring reveals persistent prescribing gaps in Piedmont, offering a replicable stewardship model for high-consumption EU regions.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": "abstract",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 6,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "V Imbriano"
    },
    {
      "name": "V Picottino"
    },
    {
      "name": "L Bresciano"
    },
    {
      "name": "L Ferrara"
    },
    {
      "name": "CM Zotti"
    },
    {
      "name": "C Vicentini"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/216spbdvag9ga.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1093/eurpub/ckag169.1872",
  "fulltext_url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13699756/",
  "id": "216spbdvag9ga",
  "issns": [
    "1101-1262",
    "1464-360X"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckag169.1872",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "6. Poster Displays"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "AcademicSubjects/MED00860"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "AcademicSubjects/SOC01210"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "AcademicSubjects/SOC02610"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "DV. Public health monitoring, reporting and foresight"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2402|Antibiotic Use and Resistance"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223681884",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13699756/pdf/?tool=EBI",
  "pmcid": "PMC13699756",
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-01",
  "publisher": "Oxford University Press",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/216spbdvag9ga.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:20:19Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13699756",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckag169.1872"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:21:47Z",
      "native_id": "PMC:PMC13699756",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13699756"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "openalex:2402|Antibiotic Use and Resistance",
      "subfield": "microbiology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "ESAC-Net indicators for antibiotic use in Piedmont, Italy: comparison with European standards",
  "title_text": "ESAC-Net indicators for antibiotic use in Piedmont, Italy: comparison with European standards",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:36:17Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/216spbdvag9ga",
  "venue": "The European Journal of Public Health",
  "versions": []
}