Study Shows Children Given Unnecessary Antibiotics

For years, physicians have been concerned about the over- prescription of antibiotics and now, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Children’s Hospital Boston have found that despite clear guidelines, physicians are over-prescribing antibiotics. Significantly more prescriptions are written than what is expected for actual rates – 15 to 36 percent – of strep throat among kids with sore throat. Details of this research are published in today’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

According to lead author Dr. Jeffrey A. Linder, a BWH internist, “This study demonstrates that children with sore throat are frequently given unnecessary antibiotics. This over-prescribing of antibiotics could be easily remedied by following known guidelines, which include doing a simple, inexpensive strep test before giving antibiotics. This is critical for not just children but all patients as unnecessary prescription of antibiotics can lead to a variety of issues including increased costs, the potential development of antibiotic resistant bacteria and adverse drug effects.”

Researchers analyzed data from children aged 3 to 17 years from 1995 to 2003 with sore throat who visited office-based physicians, hospital outpatient departments and emergency departments as identified by the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.

Encouragingly, over the eight-year time period of this study, researchers found physicians prescribed antibiotics less frequently – from 66 percent of cases in 1995 to 54 percent of cases in 2003. However, Linder said the researchers are concerned there was no decrease in the prescribing of non-recommended antibiotics, which made up 27 percent of antibiotic prescriptions.

– Carolyn Susman