title: Factors associated with potentially harmful antibiotic prescription during pregnancy: a population-based study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions during pregnancy may adversely affect the fetus. There were few studies on factors associated with antibiotic prescriptions potentially harmful to the fetus.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a population-based cross-sectional study using data from National Health Insurance Research Database. We calculated the frequency of antibiotic prescription according to the status of pregnancy, type of infections, characteristics of patients, doctors and medical institutions. According to the British National Formulary, sulfonamides, trimethoprim, tetracycline and quinolones were classified as antibiotics potentially harmful to the fetus. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the independent effect of various characteristic on antibiotic prescriptions, during pregnancy, potentially harmful to the fetus.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the 19 464 pregnant subjects, 6554 (33.67%) received antibiotic prescriptions during pregnancy. Antibiotic prescriptions potentially harmful to the fetus accounted for 6.31% of all antibiotic prescriptions during pregnancy. Pregnant women aged <20 years, in their first trimester, and who were presenting with urogenital infections had the highest risks of receiving antibiotic prescriptions potentially harmful to the fetus. Non-gynaecologists, doctors aged 39-49 or ≥50 years, and doctors at clinics had higher risks of prescribing antibiotics potentially harmful to the fetus.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Measures to improve the quality of practices should include efforts to increase awareness of antibiotic prescription guidelines for the treatment of infections in the pregnant population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Administration, Tzu-Chi University of Science and Technology, Hualien, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yichen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Care Management, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chuchieh
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Care Management, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Taipei, Taiwan.|Department of Emergency Medicine and Surgery, Taipei City Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.|Institute of Public Health and Community Medicine Research Center, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Dachen
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Care Management, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Taipei, Taiwan.|Department of Emergency Medicine and Surgery, Taipei City Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.|Institute of Public Health and Community Medicine Research Center, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Mingchung
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ko
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006176:Gynecology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D057970:Inappropriate Prescribing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011264:Pregnancy Trimesters; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013624:Taiwan
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents
keywords: antibiotic; antibiotic prescription; pregnancy; pregnant