Off-label antibiotic use in a specialized children care hospital in Punjab, Pakistan: Findings and implications.

Journal of Infection in Developing Countries
Muhammad HafeezNadeem Irfan Bukhari

Abstract

Most of the antibiotics currently used in pediatrics are either unlicensed or being prescribed outside the specifications of product label (off-label prescribing). The aim of this study was to assess the extent of off-label antibiotic use in pediatrics. A six month longitudinal off-label antibiotic utilization survey was carried out from January to June, 2018. A structured questionnaire was designed to collect detailed information for each pediatric patient admitted to participating health center. The data included basic demographic and clinical diagnosis with details of prescribed antibiotics (formulation, dose, dosage, route of administration and indication for use). Data were analyzed using Social packages for Statistical Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0. Of 1,810 admissions, 1,795 (99.2%) patients received antibiotics. Out of these, a total of 451 (25.1%) patients (326 patients admitted in the medical ward and 125 patients in ICUs) received at least one unlicensed/off-label antibiotic. Antibiotics were predominantly prescribed for the treatment of infections (n = 311, 69.0%). The majority of the pediatric patients who received off-label antibiotic suffered from respiratory tract infections (n = 223, 49.4%), skin and soft tissue...Continue Reading

Citations

May 27, 2021·Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy·Zikria SaleemMuhammad Azmi Hassali

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