ArticleEuropean journal of clinical pharmacology2011
Healthcare professional experiences and attitudes on unlicensed/off-label paediatric prescribing and paediatric clinical trials.
Article in European journal of clinical pharmacology, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled 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.
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.
Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Parental awareness, attitudes and decision-making of off-label use in children: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ paediatrics open · 2026Pooled it
- Factors affecting uptake and adherence to breast cancer chemoprevention: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Annals of oncology : official journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology · 2016Pooled it
- Awareness, knowledge and views of off-label prescribing in children: a systematic review.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2015Pooled it
- Use of off-label and unlicenced drugs in hospitalised paediatric patients: a systematic review.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2015Pooled it
- Trial
- Evaluation of healthcare professionals' experiences of taking telephone calls from parents of children with congenital heart disease. A risky business.Journal of child health care : for professionals working with children in the hospital and community · 2025Article
- Barriers and facilitators to guideline for the management of pediatric off-label use of drugs in China: a qualitative descriptive study.BMC health services research · 2024Article
- Unlicensed "Special" Medicines: Using the Pillar Integration Model to Understand Stakeholder Perspectives Across Care Settings.Integrated pharmacy research & practice · 2024Article
- Off-label prescription: developing a guideline and validating an instrument to measure physicians' and clinical pharmacists' knowledge and attitudes toward off-label medication use.Journal of diabetes and metabolic disorders · 2023Article
- Gaps in Accessibility of Pediatric Formulations: A Cross-Sectional Observational Study of a Teaching Hospital in Northern Thailand.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Off-label medication use in pediatrics and associated factors at public hospitals in east Gojjam zone, Ethiopia.SAGE open medicine · 2022Article
- Off-Label Medication: From a Simple Concept to Complex Practical Aspects.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Review
- Off-label use of medicines in neonates, infants, children, and adolescents: a joint policy statement by the European Academy of Paediatrics and the European society for Developmental Perinatal and Pediatric Pharmacology.European journal of pediatrics · 2020Article
- Unlicensed "Special" Medicines: Understanding the Community Pharmacist Perspective.Integrated pharmacy research & practice · 2020Article
- Exploratory Findings of Prescribing Unlicensed and Off-Label Medicines Among Children and Neonates.Integrated pharmacy research & practice · 2020Article
- Current practice and awareness of pediatric off-label drug use in Shanghai, China -a questionnaire-based study.BMC pediatrics · 2019Article
- Attitudes, knowledge and views on off-label prescribing in children among healthcare professionals in Malaysia.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2019Article
- Two decades of off-label prescribing in children: a literature review.World journal of pediatrics : WJP · 2018Review
- Community Pharmacy Use by Children across Europe: A Narrative Literature Review.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Review
- Hospital pharmacists' perceived beliefs and responsibilities in indication-based off-label prescribing.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo investigate the knowledge and views of a range of healthcare professionals (consultant paediatricians, general practitioners (GPs), community pharmacists and paediatric nurses) regarding the use of unlicensed/off-label medicines in children and the participation of children in clinical trials.
methodsA regional study in which a survey instrument with 39 items was issued to 500 randomly selected GPs, all community pharmacists (n = 512), 50 hospital consultants and 150 paediatric nurses in Northern Ireland.
resultsApproximately half (46.5%) of the 1,212 healthcare professionals approached responded to the questionnaire. The majority of respondents indicated their familiarity with the term unlicensed (82.9%) or off-label (58.6%) prescribing with the most frequently quoted reason for such prescribing being younger age (33.6%). Apart from community pharmacists, most respondents reported having gained their knowledge through personal experience. Even though a large percentage of respondents expressed concerns about the safety (77.8%) or efficacy (87.9%) of unlicensed/off-label prescribing in children, only 30.7% reported informing parents/guardians of these concerns on the use of such medicines in children. In addition, only 56% of respondents believed that unlicensed/off-label medicines should undergo clinical trials in children. Overall, 28.4% of respondents (20.1% of GPs, 41.4% of community pharmacists, 27.7% of paediatric nurses and 94% of consultant paediatricians) indicated their willingness to be actively involved in, and recruit their patients for paediatric clinical research.
conclusionThe use of unlicensed and off-label medicines remains a major issue in paediatric medicine. Until such times as more licensed medicines are available for children, clear guidance should be developed to allow consistency in practice across the spectrum of healthcare professionals who are involved with such medicines in their routine practice.
Indexed as
Identifiers
21243345What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.