ArticleHeliyon2025
Pooling the complex survey data across the 64 lower and middle-income countries: A study on antibiotic usage in under-five children.
Article in Heliyon, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Bridging the Evidence-to-Policy Gap: Strengthening Capacities in Low- and Middle-Income Countries to Translate Antimicrobial Resistance Data and Evidence into Effective Policies.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Antibiotic exposure for fever/cough has been rising alarmingly, especially among children under five in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This excessive use could result in higher healthcare costs, and antibiotic resistance is an alarming trend in developing countries. As a result, it's crucial to look at the variables that affect antibiotic exposure and highlight the subgroups among whom antibiotic abuse is the most prevalent. Methods: We used the most recent standard Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data for 64 LMICs. Sample weights were employed in studies to ensure exact standard errors and estimate Findings: We used data from 141,018 children under five who were reported to have had fever/cough recently in 64 LMICs. Among them, 30.4 % were exposed to antibiotics for fever/cough. Congo (68.7 %), Egypt (65.5 %), and Tajikistan (61.8 %) had the highest prevalence of antibiotic consumption across LMICs. On the other hand, Cameroon (0.3 %), Armenia (4.0 %), and Mauritania (6.1 %) had the lowest. In the final binary logistic regression, mothers that had any formal education (Primary: OR = 1.28, 95 % CI:1.07-1.53, Secondary: OR = 1.38, 95 % CI:1.14-1.67, Higher Education: OR = 1.69, 95 % CI:1.23-2.33) were more likely to expose their children to antibiotics for fever/cough than illiterate ones. Additionally, children in richer households (Richer: OR = 1.38, 95 % CI:1.15-1.66, Richest: OR = 1.46, 95 % CI:1.19-1.80) were more likely to receive antibiotics than those in poorer households. Conclusions: Antibiotic exposure for fever/cough in children under five was relatively moderate across 64 LMICs. However, the rate was incredibly high in some LMICs and incredibly low in others. The researchers recommend that the countries with high and low percentages of antibiotic exposure investigate either any possibility of antibiotic abuse or proper healthcare service at the national level.
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Registered trials
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