A multivariable analysis of the contribution of socioeconomic and environmental factors to blood culture Escherichia Coli resistant to fluoroquinolones in high- and middle-income countries

Booth, Amy; Wester, Astrid L

A multivariable analysis of the contribution of socioeconomic and environmental factors to blood culture Escherichia Coli resistant to fluoroquinolones in high- and middle-income countries

Journal Article

2022-02-19

Journal Title

BMC Public Health

Link to Journal

https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/

Department

Department of Public Health and Family Medicine

Faculty

Faculty of Health Sciences

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Abstract

Background Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a public health concern. We wanted to determine if various environmental and socioeconomic variables as well as markers of antimicrobial use impacted on the level of AMR in countries of different income levels. Methods We performed cross-national univariate and multivariable analyses using the national proportion of quinolone-resistant Escherichia coli (QREC) in blood culture as the dependent variable. Access to safe water and sanitation, other socioeconomic variables, and human and animal antimicrobial consumption were analysed. Results In middle-income countries, unsafely managed sanitation, corruption and healthcare access and quality were significantly associated with the national proportion of blood culture QREC (%) in univariate analyses, whereas no variables remained significant in the multivariable models. For the multivariable high-income country model, corruption and healthcare access and quality were significantly associated with blood culture QREC (%) levels. For the model including all countries, human fluoroquinolone use, corruption level, livestock and crop production index were significantly associated with blood culture QREC (%) levels in the univariate analyses. Conclusion Corruption is a strong predictor of AMR, likely reflecting a multitude of socioeconomic factors. Sanitation quality contributed to increased blood culture QREC (%) levels in middle-income countries, although was not an independent factor, highlighting the need to also focus on infrastructure such as sanitation services in the context of AMR.