Observational studyThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2015
Clinical predictors of antibiotic prescribing for acutely ill children in primary care: an observational study.
Observational study in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Phytotherapy for acute respiratory tract infections in children: a systematically conducted, comprehensive review.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2025Pooled it
- Antibiotic effectiveness for children with lower respiratory infections: prospective cohort and trial in primary care.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2023Trial
- Antibiotics for lower respiratory tract infection in children presenting in primary care in England (ARTIC PC): a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial.Lancet (London, England) · 2021Trial
- Trial
- Impact Assessment of the Allergy Fact Checker, a Clinical Decision Support Tool for Noninvasive Beta-Lactam Antibiotic Allergy Label Delabeling: Protocol for a Multicenter Crossover Cluster-Controlled Study.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Carriage epidemiology of Moraxella catarrhalis in an all-age community cohort between 2016 and 2018.Access microbiology · 2026Article
- Parents' perspectives on childhood antibiotic treatment in Ireland-a qualitative study.JAC-antimicrobial resistance · 2025Article
- Reducing antibiotic prescribing rates in young children in an outpatient primary care setting-a systemwide quality improvement initiative.JAC-antimicrobial resistance · 2025Article
- If antibiotics aren't always the answer-what is?Pediatric research · 2025Article
- Primary Care Antibiotic Prescribing and Infection-Related Hospitalisation.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Article
- Antibiotics for lower respiratory tract infection in children presenting in primary care: ARTIC-PC RCT.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2023Article
- Examining the association between socio-demographic factors, catheter use and antibiotic prescribing in Northern Ireland primary care: a cross-sectional multilevel analysis.Epidemiology and infection · 2022Article
- Factors predicting amoxicillin prescribing in primary care among children: a cohort study.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2022Article
- Reduction in broad-spectrum antimicrobial prescriptions by primary care pediatricians following a multifaceted antimicrobial stewardship program.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2022Article
- Air Pollution, housing and respirfatory tract Infections in Children: NatIonal birth Cohort study (PICNIC): study protocol.BMJ open · 2021Article
- Antibiotic prescription for febrile outpatients: a health facility-based secondary data analysis for the Greater Accra region of Ghana.BMC health services research · 2020Article
- Prevalence and predictors of antibiotic use among children visiting the Emergency Department in a Tertiary Hospital in Malaysia.European journal of pediatrics · 2020Article
- Assessing the appropriateness of paediatric antibiotic overuse in Australian children: a population-based sample survey.BMC pediatrics · 2020Article
- Antibiotic use for acute respiratory tract infections (ARTI) in primary care; what factors affect prescribing and why is it important? A narrative review.Irish journal of medical science · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAntibiotic overuse and inappropriate prescribing drive antibiotic resistance. Children account for a high proportion of antibiotics prescribed in primary care.
aimTo determine the predictors of antibiotic prescription in young children presenting to UK general practices with acute illness. DESIGN AND
settingProspective observational study in general practices in Wales.
methodA total of 999 children were recruited from 13 practices between March 2008 and July 2010. Multilevel, multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to determine predictors of antibiotic prescribing.
resultsOral antibiotics were prescribed to 261 children (26.1%). Respiratory infections were responsible for 77.4% of antibiotic prescriptions. The multivariable model included 719 children. Children were more likely to be prescribed antibiotics if they were older (odds ratio [OR] 1.3; 95% confidence intervals [CI] = 1.1 to 1.7); presented with poor sleep (OR 2.7; 95% CI = 1.5 to 5.0); had abnormal ear (OR 6.5; 95% CI = 2.5 to 17.2), throat (OR 2.2; 95% CI = 1.1 to 4.5) or chest examination (OR 13.6; 95% CI = 5.8 to 32.2); were diagnosed with lower respiratory tract infection (OR 9.5; 95% CI = 3.7 to 25.5), tonsillitis/sore throat (OR 119.3; 95% CI = 28.2 to 504.6), ear infection (OR 26.5; 95% CI = 7.4 to 95.7) or urinary tract infection (OR 12.7; 95% CI = 4.4 to 36.5); or if the responsible clinician perceived the child to be moderately to severely unwell (OR 4.0; 95% CI = 1.4 to 11.4). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.9371.
conclusionRespiratory infections were responsible for 74.4% of antibiotic prescriptions. Diagnoses of tonsillitis, sore throat, or ear infection were associated most with antibiotic prescribing. Diagnosis seemed to be more important than abnormal examination findings in predicting antibiotic prescribing, although these were correlated.
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