Abstract: Objective To analyze the consumption of antibiotic drugs in township health centers in Shandong province during the period of 2009-2011,and to provide reference for promoting rational use of antibiotics in rural area.Methods The drug consumption data from 2009 to 2011 in 9 township health centers in 3 counties were randomly collected.Then,based on anatomical therapeutic chemical/defined daily dose(ATC/DDD)method,the consumption sum,defined daily doses (DDDs)and annual average rate of growth (AARG) of antibiotics use were statistically analyzed.Moreover,the top 20 antibiotic drugs in DDDs ranking were described with the defined daily dose cost (DDDc).Results The AARG of antibiotic consumption sum and DDDs from 2009 to 2011 were -6.92% and 3.76%,respectively.The third-generation cephalosporin ranked the first in the share of annual antibiotic sales and its AARG was 11.46%.Broad-spectrum penicillin was in the first place in the ranking of DDDs and its AARG was 10.67%.The DDDc of antibiotics obviously decreased and showed a downward trend.Amoxicillin,azithromycin and cephalexin were the mainstream antibiotics in the township health centers.Conclusion After the implementation of essential medicine policy,the sales amount of antibiotic drugs was decreased,but its DDDs showed an increased tendency on the whole and broad-spectrum antibiotics were most frequently used in township health centers.