title: Oral drug dosage forms administered to hospitalized children: Analysis of 117,665 oral administrations in a French paediatric hospital over a 1-year period.
abstract: Selecting the most appropriate dosage form, that ensures safe administration and adherence of medications, is a major issue for children. Marketed drugs, however, have rarely been tested for their use in children. There is a need for more data on drug formulations administered to children to identify unmet needs, and drive future paediatric research. We observed, over a 12-month follow-up, 117,665 oral drug administrations to 1998 hospitalized children. Nine-tenths belonged to five Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classes: Alimentary tract & metabolism, Nervous system, Cardiovascular system, Anti-infectives for systemic use and Blood & blood forming organs, one third of drug doses administered to school-age children and adolescents were liquids, and extemporaneous capsules were commonly used in younger children. Our study shows that despite the advantages of solid dosage forms and recent evidence from randomized controlled trials showing their acceptability in infants, they are seldom used in paediatric practice.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Investigation Centre CIC-INSERM 1407, EPICIME, Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Hospices Civils de Lyon, France; UMR CNRS 5558, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, University of Lyon 1, France. Electronic address: audrey.lajoinie@gmail.com.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lajoinie
authors.affiliation: UMR CNRS 5558, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, University of Lyon 1, France.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Henin
authors.affiliation: Clinical Investigation Centre CIC-INSERM 1407, EPICIME, Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Hospices Civils de Lyon, France.
authors.forename: K A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.affiliation: Clinical Investigation Centre CIC-INSERM 1407, EPICIME, Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Hospices Civils de Lyon, France.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Malik
authors.affiliation: Clinical Investigation Centre CIC-INSERM 1407, EPICIME, Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Hospices Civils de Lyon, France.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mimouni
authors.affiliation: Toxicovigilance and Poison Control Center, Hospices Civils de Lyon, France.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Sapori
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Hospices Civils de Lyon, France.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bréant
authors.affiliation: Clinical Investigation Centre CIC-INSERM 1407, EPICIME, Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Hospices Civils de Lyon, France; Department of Pediatric Nephrology, Hopital Femme Mere Enfant, Hospices Civils de Lyon, France.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cochat
authors.affiliation: Clinical Investigation Centre CIC-INSERM 1407, EPICIME, Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Hospices Civils de Lyon, France; UMR CNRS 5558, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, University of Lyon 1, France.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kassai
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004304:Dosage Forms; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005602:France; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn
chemical_list: D004304:Dosage Forms
keywords: Administration practices; Age appropriateness; Drug formulation; Formulation appropriateness; Oral drug administration; Paediatric