Antibiotics overuse sending children more to emergency

  American researchers have identified adverse drug events from antibiotics as a leading cause of children visiting hospital emergency departments. Their finding points to concern that antibiotics, which is the most medications prescribed for children, are being overused. Communicating the risks of antibiotics, ADEs could help reduce unnecessary prescribing,” they wrote in the Journal of […]

 

American researchers have identified adverse drug events from antibiotics as a leading cause of children visiting hospital emergency departments.

Their finding points to concern that antibiotics, which is the most medications prescribed for children, are being overused.

Communicating the risks of antibiotics, ADEs could help reduce unnecessary prescribing,” they wrote in the Journal of the Paediatric Infectious Diseases Society.

“Prevention efforts could target pediatric patients who are at the greatest risk of harm.”

The study used data on adverse drug events and hospital emergency visits over five years.

More than 69,000 emergency visits were recorded among children aged 10 and less, accounting for nearly 46% of all visits related to adverse drug events for antibiotics.

Two in every five emergency visits related to antibiotics involved children aged less than two years. In 86 out of 100 cases, an allergic reaction was involved.

The most common antibiotic implicated in the adverse drug reactions and emergency visits was amoxicillin.

Emergency visits reduced with age of children, the researchers found, but not for septrin.

While amoxicillin accounted for most hospital visits among children less than two years, septrin had the highest rate of emergency visits in children aged 10 to 19 years.

“Minimizing antibiotic overprescribing is important for reducing acute and clinically significant harms to individual patients and for reducing the societal risk of antibiotic resistance,” the study concluded.