ANTIBIOTIC PRESCRIBING PATTERN IN PAEDIATRICS OUTPATIENT IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL
Journal Title: Journal of Evidence Based Medicine and Healthcare - Year 2017, Vol 4, Issue 50
Abstract
BACKGROUND The invention of antimicrobials emerged as a transformational turning point in the reduction of the burden of communicable disease in the 20th century. Antimicrobials are among the most widely prescribed therapeutic agents across the world. The use of antibiotics among children is different from adults due to a number of reasons like a lack of data on pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, efficacy and safety of drugs, different physiological spectrum among different age groups- preterm neonates, full-term neonates, infants and toddlers, older children and adolescents, paediatrics populations being vulnerable to the majority of the illnesses and the adverse effect of irrational use of antimicrobials being more serious among children than adults. However, antibiotic use is not explored much in a paediatric population. Existing reports of population-based antibiotic use in children are relatively few, so the present study was carried out in Berhampur city with the objectives of finding out the pattern of oral antibiotic use in children in the outpatient setting of a tertiary care hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS This cross-sectional study was carried out on a convenience sample of 216 patients treated with oral antibiotics in the Paediatrics Outpatient Department in MKCG Medical College, Berhampur. Data was collected and analysed from the prescriptions after obtaining informed written consent of the patient’s attendant and there was no interaction with the patients. Any prescription with an oral antibiotic prescribed was included for the study. The main outcome measures were the pattern of oral antibiotic prescription. The data were expressed as proportions and analysed using GraphPad Prism software (trial version). RESULTS Of the 216 prescriptions analysed, the most common disease entity for which a prescription with an oral antibiotic was made was acute respiratory infections (68.05%). Cefpodoxime was the commonly prescribed antibiotic. In the present study, all antimicrobials were prescribed empirically without any microbiological evidence. CONCLUSION This study highlights antimicrobial prescription pattern in a paediatrics outpatient setting in a tertiary care hospital. Beta lactamase were the commonest antibiotics prescribed. The use of antibiotics without any microbiological evidence warrants for increasing the rational use of antibiotics in children.
Authors and Affiliations
Budhia Majhi, Abinash Panda, Saroj Kumar Barma
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP220197
- DOI 10.18410/jebmh/2017/604
- Views 133
- Downloads 0
WHY BECOME A DOCTOR? EVALUATION OF MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS FOR SELECTING MEDICAL PROFESSION AS CAREER
After pre-university course, students have to take an important decision regarding their career depending on their interest, family aspirations, past experiences and their limited knowledge of various careers. The object...
TREATMENT OUTCOME IN EXTRANODAL NON-HODGKIN’S LYMPHOMA OF DIFFERENT SUBSITES IN HEAD AND NECK REGION
BACKGROUND HNENL (Head and Neck Extra nodal Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma) contributes for <20% of all extra nodal NHL and <5% of all head and neck cancers. With limited literature, the outcomes of extra nodal lymphomas also va...
STUDY OF THE PREVALENCE OF MICROALBUMINURIA AND RETINOPATHY IN PREDIABETES IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Diabetes is a chronic disease that has a prolonged prediabetic phase. Indians develop diabetes 10 years earlier than other ethnic groups (mean age 42.5 years). 1 Diet, environment, genetics play...
STROMAL EXPRESSION OF CD10 IN INVASIVE BREAST CARCINOMA AND ITS CORRELATION WITH KNOWN PROGNOSTIC MARKERS
BACKGROUND Breast carcinoma is the most common non-skin malignancy in women. More recently, it has been suggested that extracellular proteinase regulates growth factors and cytokines that might contribute to tumour progr...
TONGUE LESIONS - A CLINICAL STUDY
BACKGROUND Tongue lesions are one of the commonest problems in the population seen by an ENT Surgeon in the Out Patient Department. Most of them are treated by medical line of management except trauma patients, benign tu...