Off-label antibiotic use in a specialized children care hospital in Punjab, Pakistan: Findings and implications.
Anti-Bacterial Agents
/ therapeutic use
Child
Child, Preschool
Communicable Diseases
/ drug therapy
Female
Hospitals
/ statistics & numerical data
Humans
Inappropriate Prescribing
/ statistics & numerical data
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Longitudinal Studies
Male
Off-Label Use
/ statistics & numerical data
Pakistan
Pediatrics
Respiratory Tract Infections
/ drug therapy
Surveys and Questionnaires
Off-label drug
antibiotic use
off-label prescribing
pediatrics
Journal
Journal of infection in developing countries
ISSN: 1972-2680
Titre abrégé: J Infect Dev Ctries
Pays: Italy
ID NLM: 101305410
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
31 05 2020
31 05 2020
Historique:
received:
29
09
2019
accepted:
25
02
2020
entrez:
12
6
2020
pubmed:
12
6
2020
medline:
20
7
2021
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Most of the antibiotics currently used in pediatrics are either unlicensed or being prescribed outside the specifications of product label (off-label prescribing). The aim of this study was to assess the extent of off-label antibiotic use in pediatrics. A six month longitudinal off-label antibiotic utilization survey was carried out from January to June, 2018. A structured questionnaire was designed to collect detailed information for each pediatric patient admitted to participating health center. The data included basic demographic and clinical diagnosis with details of prescribed antibiotics (formulation, dose, dosage, route of administration and indication for use). Data were analyzed using Social packages for Statistical Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0. Of 1,810 admissions, 1,795 (99.2%) patients received antibiotics. Out of these, a total of 451 (25.1%) patients (326 patients admitted in the medical ward and 125 patients in ICUs) received at least one unlicensed/off-label antibiotic. Antibiotics were predominantly prescribed for the treatment of infections (n = 311, 69.0%). The majority of the pediatric patients who received off-label antibiotic suffered from respiratory tract infections (n = 223, 49.4%), skin and soft tissue infections (n = 53, 11.8%), gastrointestinal tract infections (n = 56, 12.4%) and other infections (n = 46, 10.2%). Co-amoxiclav (n = 190, 42.1%) was the most frequently off-label prescribed antibiotic to pediatric patients. An inappropriate dose for patients (n = 430, 95.3%) was the most frequent cause of prescribing off-label antibiotics. Further evaluation of health and economic outcomes of off-label prescribing and determinants influencing the drug choice is required.
Substances chimiques
Anti-Bacterial Agents
0
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
540-544Informations de copyright
Copyright (c) 2020 Muhammad Hafeez, Zikria Saleem, Nasir Abbas Bukhari, Khalid Hussain, Rahat Shamim, Amjad Hussain, Nadeem Irfan Bukhari.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
No Conflict of Interest is declared