Inappropriate Use of Antibiotics in Children Decreasing

A new analysis of the emergency room visits claims that there has been a decrease in the inappropriate use of antibiotics in children, but not in adults.

The analysis, based on the data retrieved from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey for a 10 year period from 2001 to 2010, reveals that there has been a decrease in the use of antibiotics for respiratory infections in patients under the age 19 year. However the same decrease was not noticed in adults patients.

"While emergency department antibiotic use for acute respiratory tract infections decreased in the past decade among children, we saw no decrease in antibiotic use for adults with acute respiratory tract infections," coauthor John Baddley, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, an author on the study said in a statement. "Given organized efforts to emphasize antibiotic stewardship, we expected to see a decrease in emergency department antibiotic use for such infections."

Baddley continues to state that several patients visit the ER are not just used for emergency cases but also for primary care visits, mostly those who are uninsured or insured by Medicare. Reducing the use of inappropriate antibiotics in the ER would make a great difference.

In the United States, acute respiratory tract infections account for nearly one-tenth of the ambulatory care visits. Acute respiratory tract infections that include rhinitis, sinusitis and bronchitis are the most common cause of childhood morbidity and remain a crucial public health concern.

"The observed lack of change in antibiotic utilization for adult acute respiratory tract infection patients, especially those with infections where antibiotics are not indicated, is concerning," the investigators write in the study. "This may indicate that efforts to curtail inappropriate antibiotic use have not been effective or have not yet been implemented for this subset of patients.

The study is published in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.