Repository logo
 

Antibiotic consumption in children prior to diagnosis of asthma.


Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Marra, Fawziah 
Marra, Carlo A 
Richardson, Kathryn 
Lynd, Larry D 
Fitzgerald, Mark J 

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Asthma is difficult to diagnose in children and at times misdiagnosis of an infection can occur. However, little is known about the magnitude and patterns of antibiotic consumption in children with asthma relative to those without asthma. METHODS: Using population-based data, 128,872 children were identified with at least 6 years of follow-up. The adjusted rate-ratio (RR) of antibiotics dispensed to asthmatic as compared to non-asthmatic children was determined. RESULTS: At age six, the RR of antibiotic consumption for asthmatics compared to non-asthmatics varied between, 1.66 to 2.32, depending on the year of asthma diagnosis. Of the 18,864 children with asthma at ages 2-8, 52% (n = 9,841) had antibiotics dispensed in the 6 months prior to their index date of asthma diagnosis. The RR of antibiotic consumption in the 1 month prior to asthma diagnosis compared to 5 months prior was 1.66 (95% CI 1.60-1.71). The RR was lower in males compared to females (1.58 vs 1.77), and lower in those who received antibiotics in the first year of life relative to those that did not (1.60 vs. 1.76). CONCLUSIONS: There is higher antibiotic consumption in children with asthma compared to those without asthma. The pattern of antibiotic use suggests that diagnosis guidelines are difficult to follow in young children leading to misdiagnosis and over treatment with antibiotics.

Description

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.

Keywords

Anti-Bacterial Agents, Asthma, Canada, Child, Child, Preschool, Cohort Studies, Diagnosis, Differential, Diagnostic Errors, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Respiratory Tract Infections

Journal Title

BMC Pulm Med

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1471-2466
1471-2466

Volume Title

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC