We found a match
Your institution may have rights to this item. Sign in to continue.
- Title
Medication use for pediatric upper respiratory tract infections.
- Authors
Das, Biswadeep; Sarkar, Chayna; Majumder, Abhijeet Guha
- Abstract
The present study monitored medication prescribing patterns to patients treated for upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) in the pediatric outpatient department (OPD) at Central Referral Hospital (CRH), Gangtok, Sikkim. A total of 562 URTI prescriptions of children, aged 0–12 years attending pediatric OPD at CRH, Sikkim were collected by a random once-weekly survey between May 2002 and April 2003. Males numbered 284 (50.5%), and females 278 (49.5%). Most of the patients in our study were aged 2–5 years (preschool children) (44.8%). The average number of medications prescribed per encounter was 2.37; 59.2% (789) of medicines were fixed-dose combination (FDC) products and two-thirds of FDCs were respiratory medicines (521). The most commonly prescribed medicines were respiratory medicines (47% of the total medicines prescribed). Others were antimicrobials (30.7%) and analgesic-antipyretics (18.8%). Among respiratory medicines, cough and cold preparations (prescribed in 13 different FDC products in 25 brand names) were prescribed most frequently (62%) followed by nasal preparations (21%) and β2 adrenergic agonist inhalers (9.2%). Ninety-eight percent of nasal preparations were isotonic saline drops (129). Antihistaminics (41.8%), non-opioid antitussives (13.5%), alpha agonist oral decongestants (42.3%), expectorants (32.2%), mucolytics (18.7%), paracetamol (14.7%), and β2 agonists (17.2%) were common ingredients of respiratory medicine combinations. Antihistamines (2.5%) and β2 agonists (9.2%) were used alone. The most commonly prescribed antimicrobial was amoxicillin with clavulanate (28.4%) followed by cefadroxil (20%), cotrimoxazole (9.5%) and amoxicillin alone (9.3%). Average number of antimicrobials prescribed was 0.7 (409/562). The most commonly prescribed analgesic-antipyretic was paracetamol (81.3%) followed by combination of ibuprofen and paracetamol (12.4%) and nimesulide (5.6%). Medication selection was rational in few cases. Various anomalies were observed in various aspects of drug use in children for URTI's. The main aim of the initiative is the need for more rational medicine use in URTIs in children for improvement of clinical effectiveness, cost effectiveness and reduction of potential useless risk of side effects.
- Subjects
SIKKIM (India); RESPIRATORY infections; PEDIATRICS; DRUG utilization; DRUG side effects
- Publication
Fundamental & Clinical Pharmacology, 2006, Vol 20, Issue 4, p385
- ISSN
0767-3981
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1472-8206.2006.00414.x