Evidence map›Paper›PMID 19529926›Full record

ReviewEuropean journal of clinical pharmacology2009

Drug prescriptions to outpatient children: a review of the literature.

Antonio Clavenna, Maurizio Bonati

Abstract readReview
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in European journal of clinical pharmacology, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 56 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
56citing papers in PubMed, 5 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

56 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. The epidemiology of drug-related hospital admissions in paediatrics - a systematic review.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2024
    Pooled it
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  6. Article
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  8. Observational
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  11. Antibiotic prescription among children with common cold at a district hospital in Uganda.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2023
    Article
  12. Treatment Harms in Paediatric Primary Care.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023
    Article
  13. Review
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  15. Article
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  17. Chronic Medication Use and Factors Associated With Polypharmacy Among Outpatient Pediatric Patients.The journal of pediatric pharmacology and therapeutics : JPPT : the official journal of PPAG · 2022
    Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Antonio ClavennaLaboratory for Mother and Child Health, Department of Public Health, "Mario Negri" Institute for Pharmacological Research, via Giuseppe La Masa 19, Milan 20156, Italy. clavenna@marionegri.it
Maurizio Bonati

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeTo evaluate the drug prescription pattern in outpatient children.

methodsA systematic literature search was performed in MEDLINE and EMBASE to identify studies published between 1994 and 2008 evaluating drug prescriptions to outpatient children.

resultsA total of 128 drug utilisation studies were identified, 107 of which were focused on a specific drug class, in particular psychotropic drugs (49 studies) and antibiotics (32 studies). The 21 studies that evaluated all drug prescriptions involved 21 countries, mainly from Europe (13 studies). Large differences were found between studies concerning data source, sample size and age range. A prevalence ranging from 51% in Denmark to 70% in Greenland and a prescription rate (number of drugs per children) ranging from 0.8 in Norway to 3.2 in the United States were reported in the 11 studies that monitored the overall paediatric population. The prevalence rate was higher in preschoolers, with a peak between 72 and 90%, and decreased in children >6 years. Antibiotics were the most prescribed drugs (20-33% of the prescriptions) followed by antiasthmatics (10-25%). According to the results of four studies comparable in terms of data source and children's age, the overall prevalence estimate was 60%.

conclusionA large heterogeneity was found between studies, making a comparative evaluation often difficult or incomplete. The epidemiological evaluation of drug use in children should therefore be improved, in particular in terms of methodological quality of studies, and prospective multinational collaborative studies aimed at collecting valid and comparable data should be performed to improve the rational use of drugs.

Indexed as

Ambulatory CareOutpatientsAdolescentAnti-Asthmatic AgentsAnti-Bacterial AgentsCanadaChildChild, PreschoolConfounding Factors, EpidemiologicDatabases, FactualDrug PrescriptionsEuropeFamily PracticeHumansPractice Patterns, Physicians'Prescription DrugsAnti-Asthmatic AgentsAnti-Bacterial AgentsPrescription DrugsPsychotropic Drugs

Identifiers

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.