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Using a difficult-to-treat resistance index to gauge imbalance between countries' antibiotic resistance prevalence and access to antibiotics: a scoping review and concept proposal

Walker MK, Chishti EA, Yek C, Sarzynski S, Angelo S, Cohn J, Livinski AA, Kadri SS

Clinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, 2025

5 citations

Abstract

Background: Inferring the impact of antimicrobial resistance on patient outcomes is challenging, given the variability in antibiotic access across countries and over time. By denoting resistance to all highly safe and effective antibiotics, the difficult-to-treat resistance (DTR) definition offers a framework for such assessments globally.

Objectives: This study aims to conduct a scoping review to understand the international adoption, scalability, and prognostic utility of DTR and enable solutions to incorporate antibiotic access into the DTR framework.

Methods: Data sources: Data sources included Agricola, Embase, Global Index Medicus, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science: BIOSIS and Core Collection.

Study eligibility criteria: Study eligibility criteria included original research publications occurring after January 2018 using the term 'difficult-to-treat resistance' to describe antimicrobial-resistant bacterial isolates demonstrating resistance to all first-line antibiotics (i.e. all β-lactam and fluoroquinolone antibiotics).

Assessment of risk of bias: Assessment of risk of bias included Joanna Briggs Institute critical appraisal tool.

Methods of data synthesis: We assessed the overall themes of the included studies and classified them into epidemiological, mortality, or antibiotic effectiveness/efficacy studies. Semiquantitative results among studies evaluating the prevalence of resistant bacterial isolates and mortality were reported. We propose a 'DTR index' (DTRi) that…

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