Antibiotic prescription pattern for viral respiratory illness in emergency room and ambulatory care settings.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the current practice pattern of antibiotic prescription rate in viral respiratory tract infection diagnosed children among different specialty health care providers.


METHODS
The study was a retrospective case review study where a random sample of 1200 child care visits coded as viral respiratory infections in primary care provider's office, convenient care clinic, or emergency room in 2006 were analyzed.


RESULTS
Overall, the antibiotic prescription rate was 30%. The prescription rate was 3.7 times (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.90-7.31) higher for bronchitis patients and 2.5 times (95% CI = 1.46-4.30) higher for viral pharyngitis patients than for common cold patients. Antibiotics were written more by emergency physicians (odds ratio [OR] = 11.04; 95% CI = 5.78-21.10) and family practitioners (OR = 5.22; 95% CI = 2.99-9.10) than by pediatricians.


CONCLUSIONS
Although not recommended, children seen in the emergency room and family practitioner's office are more likely to receive antibiotic prescriptions than those seen in the pediatrician's office.
Nadeem Ahmed
M
M
Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana, IL, USA. nadeem.ahmed@carle.com
Muyot
Maria M
MM
Begum
Shahana
S
Smith
Patti
P
Little
Charletta
C
Windemuller
Fernando J
FJ
D000293:Adolescent; D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001991:Bronchitis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000821:virology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003139:Common Cold / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000821:virology; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008511:Medicine; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010612:Pharyngitis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000821:virology; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D011336:Probability; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000821:virology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy
D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents