ArticleActa paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992)2022
Systemic antibiotics and asthma medicines dispensed to 0-12 year olds significantly decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Article in Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pediatric Drug Adherence and Parental Attention: Evidence From Comprehensive Claims Data.Health economics · 2026Article
- Trends in medication use during the COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec, Canada.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Temporal trends in the prevalence of GP registrars' long-term paediatric asthma control medications prescription.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2024Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Prescribing of Antiasthmatic Treatments in Portugal: A Nationwide Study.Clinical therapeutics · 2023Article
- Antibiotics prescribed for young children fell when COVID-19 restrictions were in place.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2023Article
- Restrictions for COVID-19 prevented other respiratory infections and reduced emergency visits in children.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2022Article
- Systemic antibiotics and asthma medicines dispensed to 0-12 year olds significantly decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2022Article
- Healthcare utilization in children across the care continuum during the COVID-19 pandemic.PloS one · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimNationwide lockdowns and social restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic have reduced childhood infections. We assessed how many items of systemic antibiotics and asthma medicines were dispensed to children aged 0-12 years in Finland before and during the pandemic and analysed the reimbursement costs.
methodsThe data came from the national Finnish register of reimbursable prescriptions, which is maintained by the country's Social Insurance Institution. It included all prescriptions for antibiotics and asthma medicines dispensed to children aged 0-12 years in 2019 and 2020. Prescription rates per 1000 children were calculated for each quarter and compared using rate ratios and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI).
resultsOverall dispensing for antibiotics decreased by 55.3% and was most prominent for macrolides for children aged 0-5 years (59.6%, 95% CI 60.9%-58.2%). Asthma medicines decreased by 19.8%, and the most prominent reduction was in short-acting beta-agonists for children aged 0-5 years (35.2%, 95% CI 36.1%-34.2%). These reduced reimbursement costs by 3.4 million Euros from 2019 to 2020.
conclusionThis nationwide study showed that the number of antibiotics and asthma medicines decreased by 59.6% and 19.8% respectively from 2019 to 2020, generating a cost saving of 3.4 million Euros.
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