There are fears Australian nursing homes are contributing to the creation of superbugs, with antibiotics being inappropriately prescribed in up to 20 per cent of cases.

The results of the first survey of antibiotic use in Australian nursing homes were "very concerning, particularly [for] those residents who had very prolonged prescriptions of antibiotics for very unclear reasons", according to researchers.

Frequent and inappropriate use of antibiotics can lead to the kind of antimicrobial resistance that creates superbugs, health authorities say.

Professor Karin Thursky, from the National Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Stewardship, said the survey showed most of the antibiotics prescribed in Australian nursing homes were for urinary, respiratory, skin, or soft-tissue infections.

But one in five patients were given antibiotics as a preventative measure.

"The big issue for us is that we know that if you're continually exposed to antibiotics and you select out what we would call a multi-resistant organism, it's not just that patient that's at risk, it's actually the other patients in the facility that are at risk," Professor Thursky said.

The survey found nearly 22 per cent of prescriptions were given to residents who had no signs or symptoms of an infection in the week before they started the course of antimicrobial medication.

For residents who did show symptoms of an infection, about two-thirds of prescriptions were deemed inappropriate.

"There are many ways that they are inappropriate," Professor Thursky said.

"It may have been that there was inadequate documentation — so no indication justifying their use — or that there was no review or stop date documented, or that they were used for indications that didn't meet any of the standard indications."

More than 180 nursing homes across all Australian states took part in the pilot survey between June and August 2015.

On the day of the survey, 11.3 per cent of the residents were on an antibiotic even though only 4.5 per cent of them had signs or symptoms of infection.

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Superbugs major health threat: WHO

The World Health Organisation has warned antimicrobial resistance is one of the greatest threats to human health, but the survey found the danger was a relatively new concept for people working in nursing homes.

The National Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Stewardship's project officer, Dr Noleen Bennett, said senior staff in aged care facilities were becoming more aware of antimicrobial resistance, but the level of knowledge about superbugs in some groups of workers remained fairly low.

"The less-skilled, direct-care staff, [such as] personal care assistants … if you went to the majority of them and started talking about the risks of antimicrobial resistance, I'd have to think their knowledge is very limited," she said.

"They are an important group that we need to educate."

She said all aged-care workers needed support to address the problem.

The National Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Stewardship hopes all Australian residential aged care facilities and multi-purpose centres take part in future surveys to better monitor the prevalence of infections and prescriptions.