ArticlePediatrics2021
Prescription Drug Dispensing to US Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Article in Pediatrics, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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
26 citing papers in PubMed, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Experiences of family caregivers of children and youth with special health care needs in a medical home-connected virtual preparedness intervention.Families, systems & health : the journal of collaborative family healthcare · 2026Article
- Medicaid Expansion and Medication Use Among U.S. Children with ASD or ADHD: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Analysis Comparing Before and During the COVID-19 Periods.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Outcomes of a Multifaceted Program on Antibiotic Prescribing in Primary Care Among Children Under Three Years of Age.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Trends in antibiotic dispensing for children in Belgian ambulatory care: time series analysis before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic.JAC-antimicrobial resistance · 2025Article
- Article
- Trends in medication use during the COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec, Canada.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Prescription Stimulant Dispensing to US Children: 2017-2023.Pediatrics · 2025Article
- Changes in the Appropriateness of US Outpatient Antibiotic Prescribing After the COVID-19 Outbreak: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis of 2016-2021 Data.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2024Article
- School closures and prescription medication use among children and adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA, 2019-2022.BMJ paediatrics open · 2024Article
- Utilization of antidepressants, anxiolytics, and hypnotics during the COVID-19 pandemic.Translational psychiatry · 2024Review
- ADHD prescription patterns and medication adherence in children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic in an urban academic setting.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Antibiotic Receipt for Pediatric Telemedicine Visits With Primary Care vs Direct-to-Consumer Vendors.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Article
- Use of antibiotics in Paediatric Primary Health Care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.Enfermedades infecciosas y microbiologia clinica (English ed.) · 2023Observational
- Geographic Trends in Pediatric Psychotropic Medication Dispensing Before and After the Start of the COVID-19 Pandemic.Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.) · 2023Article
- The MPRINT Hub Data, Model, Knowledge and Research Coordination Center: Bridging the gap in maternal-pediatric therapeutics research through data integration and pharmacometrics.Pharmacotherapy · 2023Review
- Antibiotics prescribed for young children fell when COVID-19 restrictions were in place.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2023Article
- The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Outpatient Antibiotic Prescription Rates in Children and Adolescents-A Claims-Based Study in Germany.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Observational
- [Use of antibiotics in Paediatric Primary Health Care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic].Enfermedades infecciosas y microbiologia clinica · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
- Comment on
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAfter the US coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak, overall prescription dispensing declined but then rebounded. Whether these same trends occurred for children is unknown.
methodsUsing the IQVIA National Prescription Audit, which contains monthly dispensing counts from 92% of US retail pharmacies, we assessed changes in the monthly number of prescriptions dispensed to US children aged 0 to 19 years during 2018-2020. We compared dispensing totals in April to December 2020 and April to December 2019 overall, by drug class, and among drug classes that typically treat acute infections (eg, antibiotics) or chronic diseases (eg, antidepressants).
resultsBetween January 2018 and February 2020, the median monthly number of prescriptions dispensed to children was 25 744 758. Dispensing totals declined from 25 684 219 to 16 742 568 between March and April 2020, increased to 19 657 289 during October 2020, and decreased to 15 821 914 during December 2020. Dispensing totals during April to December 2020 (160 630 406) were 27.1% lower compared with April to December 2019 (220 284 613). Among the 3 drug classes accounting for the most prescriptions in 2019, the corresponding percentage changes were -55.6% for antibiotics, -11.8% for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder medications, and 0.1% for antidepressants. Among drug classes that typically treat acute infections and chronic diseases, percentage changes were -51.3% and -17.4%, respectively.
conclusionsPrescription dispensing to children declined by one-quarter in April to December 2020 compared with April to December 2019. Declines were greater for infection-related drugs than for chronic disease drugs. Decreased dispensing of the latter is potentially concerning and warrants further investigation. Whether reductions in dispensing of infection-related drugs are temporary or sustained will be important to monitor going forward.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What 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.