A worrying trend in weight‐adjusted paediatric antibiotic use in a Norwegian tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Weight-adjusted antibiotic use provided a more meaningful description of the quantities of antibiotics consumed than DDDs/100 bed days, particularly for neonates. Total antibiotic use, use of meropenem, third-generation cephalosporins and imidazole derivatives increased significantly despite low prevalence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens.

Potential for More Rational Use of Antibiotics in Hospitalized Children in a Country With Low Resistance

“…International treatment trends could possibly have had an impact on prescribing habits and may explain part of the increase in the BSA use. It should be noted that the prescription rate of carbapenems and third generation cephalosporins was considerably lower in our study than in a study conducted in a single Norwegian hospital treating a large number of immunodeficient children [9].…”

“…Studies in Scandinavian inpatient term born infants indicate that antibiotic use can be reduced and that empirical treatment for sepsis varies [7,8]. Furthermore, Raastad et al revealed a significantly increased consumption of BSA in a highly specialized Norwegian pediatric department [9]. Except from this, there is a lack of studies exploring antibiotic use in hospitalized Norwegian children and neonates.…”

A pilot study evaluating the prescribing of ceftriaxone in hospitals in Ghana: findings and implications

“…This is resulting in the use of newer, more targeted, but also more expensive antibiotics across health care sectors [1,4]. Consequently, the evaluation of current antibiotic use is an essential measure for assessing and improving the appropriate use of antibiotics across sectors in order to develop pertinent future strategies to reduce AMR in the future [4][5][6][7][8].…”

Using a period incidence survey to compare antibiotic use in children between a university hospital and a district hospital in a country with low antimicrobial resistance: a prospective observational study

“…Raastad et al revealed a significantly increased consumption of BSA in a highly specialised Norwegian paediatric department 10. Our group recently showed that a high number (30%) of children in Norwegian general hospitals are receiving BSA,11 and that adherence rate to antibiotic guidelines is low (48%).…”