PREVALENCE OF ANTIBIOTIC USE IN PEDIATRIC INFECTIONS AND ENHANCING OPTIMAL ANTIBIOTIC UTILIZATION THROUGH PATIENT COUNSELING

AIMS: To identify the prevalence of antibiotic use in pediatric infections and to counsel the patients or their representatives on the optimal use of antibiotics. METHOD: The study will be conducted in Government General Hospital, Guntur, a tertiary care teaching hospital. The sources of data will include the relevant medical records of the patient along with direct observation of the patient. Socio-demographics of the patient, antibiotic prescribing pattern and associated drug related problems will be considered during the process of data collection. RESULTS: A total of 300 prescriptions were studied to identify the prevalence of antibiotic use in pediatric infections and antibiotics were used in 296 (98.6%) prescriptions with none used in 1.33 % of the patient population. Based on their age, the patient population was divided into 4 groups with infants making the most of the population 37.6 percent (113), toddlers 8.6 percent (26), young child 27.6 percent (83) and child 26 percent (78). CONCLUSION: The study provides data on the use of antibiotics in pediatric population including their prevalence and pattern, the iatrogenic outcomes of antibiotic use in children and the role of patient representative counseling in enhancing improved antibiotic use. Further studies putting emphasis on patient representative counseling in improving antibiotic therapy could be done as the studies on the subject are rather sparse.