Publication
Title
Dosage form data used for estimating pediatric antibiotic use
Author
Abstract
We aimed to report a simple estimation method to enable quantification of pediatric antibiotic exposure in large aggregated datasets. Secondly, we aimed to quantify and benchmark Hungarian pediatric antibiotic use. First we intended to examine whether a correlation existed between dosage form data and the patient's age. Therefore, issued prescriptions were analyzed in pharmacies. As a correlation was found between the share of liquid oral antibacterial products and the rate of pediatric antibiotic prescriptions (R=0.884; p<0.001), we extrapolated this finding to a large aggregated dataset and estimated that 34.6% of prescriptions were issued for pediatric cases (95% confidence interval: 19.7-60.0). Taking into account the demography of the population, children were exposed to antibiotics three times more often than adults with a corresponding annual prescription rate of 2.6. We demonstrated that simple drug-related data can be linked to a patient-related measure as we found strong associations between dosage form data and patients' age. Based on this association, massive pediatric antibiotic exposure was found. Due to the general availability of dosage form data and the ease of the estimation method, the reported concept can be used to quantify pediatric antibiotic use in large aggregated datasets or when age stratification is absent.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Scientia pharmaceutica. - Wien
Publication
Wien : 2015
ISSN
0036-8709
2218-0532
DOI
10.3797/SCIPHARM.1411-05
Volume/pages
83 :3 (2015) , p. 511-518
ISI
000365399700009
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 15.01.2016
Last edited 03.01.2022
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