Drug Utilisation Patterns in Children Admitted to a Paediatric General Medical Ward in Five Countries

Abstract

ObjectiveTo investigate and compare drug prescription patterns in children admitted to a paediatric general medical ward in five countries.MethodsA prospective cohort study conducted on paediatric medical wards in the UK, Germany, Australia, Hong Kong (HK) and Malaysia. Data were collected over 3 months in each country except in Australia (1 month). All medications prescribed were classified according to the WHO Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification. For each drug, frequency of prescriptions and patient exposures were calculated for ATC anatomical and therapeutic levels overall and by country.ResultsOne thousand two hundred and seventy-eight patients were included (Australia 146, Germany 376, UK 313, HK 143 and Malaysia 300); 89.2 % of patients (1140) received medications, median 3 (interquartile range 2–5) drugs per patient. 5367 drugs were prescribed. The most frequently prescribed therapeutic groups in all countries were: systemic antibacterials (1355; 25.2 %), analgesics/non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) (1173; 21.8 %) and drugs for obstructive airway diseases (472; 8.8 %). Overall, 65.1 % (742) of patients received at least one systemic antibacterial, 63.7 % (726) received one or more analgesic/NSAIDs, and 23.6 % (269) received ‘drugs for obstructive airway diseases’. The number of patients exposed to these groups differed significantly between countries (p < 0.05). Paracetamol was the most frequently prescribed in all countries, but metamizole was only used in Germany. Morphine was mainly prescribed in the UK.ConclusionThis study provides an overview of drug use patterns in five culturally and ethnically diverse countries. The most frequently used therapeutic groups were similar, but the proportion of patients treated differed between countries. Also within a therapeutic group the specific drug used varied between countries.

Pattern of analgesic use in hospitalized children at a pediatric general ward in a tertiary care teaching hospital

“…The prevalence of analgesic use is comparable to another study from Germany in which the prevalence of analgesics se was 20% 7 . The most commonly prescribed analgesic was paracetamol which is similar to other studies 5,8,9 ). The most commonly prescribed dose of paracetamol was 15mg/kg which is comparable to other studies [8][9][10] .…”

Analgesic Drug Prescription Patterns on Five International Paediatric Wards

“…Nevertheless, opioid use was more common on paediatric general medical wards in the remaining centres with frequencies between 14.6-21.6%. One reason for this observation could be that the studied patients in UK and AUS were admitted with more painful conditions [16,18]. Other reasons may be greater fear of opioid use, e.g.…”

“…ADVISE was a prospective, multicentre, observational cohort study conducted on five paediatric general medical wards in Australia (AUS), Germany (GER), Hong Kong (HK), Malaysia ). Further details on the methodology of that study, cohort description and overall drug utilisation are described elsewhere [16][17][18].…”

Incidence of adverse drug reactions in a paediatric ward of a Malaysian hospital: A prospective observational study

“…Systemic antibacterial drugs antibiotics are the most widely prescribed drug category for hospitalized children [18]. The data shows that 74.7 % of the patients in our study received at least one antibiotic medication during their hospital stay and 77.4 % of the reported ADRs were related to this drug group, which is known to be frequently associated with ADRs [19].…”