BMJ  2005;331:328-329 (6 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.38503.706887.AE1 (published 20 June 2005)

Primary care

Antibiotic prescribing in general practice and hospital admissions for peritonsillar abscess, mastoiditis, and rheumatic fever in children: time trend analysis

¹ Paediatric Infectious Diseases Unit, St George's Hospital, London SW17 0QT, ² Pharmaceutical Directorate, Prescription Pricing Authority, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 6SN, ³ Oxford University Division of Public Health and Primary Care, Oxford OX3 7LF, ⁴ GPRD Division, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, London SW8 5NQ

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Introduction

Antibiotic resistance is an increasing problem in paediatric practice. General practitioners in the United Kingdom have consequently been exhorted to minimise antibiotic prescribing for childhood upper respiratory infections.¹ However, some data suggest an association between reduced prescribing and an increased incidence of rare complications of bacterial infection.^2-4 We report national data on community prescribing of antibiotics and hospital admissions for peritonsillar abscess, mastoiditis, and rheumatic fever in children during 1993-2003 (community prescribing) and 1993-2002 (hospital admissions).

Participants, methods, and results

We took prescribing data from the Prescription Pricing Authority's database for England (which collates information on drugs issued by pharmacists) and from the IMS Disease Analyzer Mediplus UK database (which contains electronic consultation data from about 130 computerised practices). We extracted hospital admission data from the hospital episode statistics for England using coding from the international classification of diseases, ninth and 10th revisions (ICD-9, ICD-10): 475 and J36 (quinsy); 390-2 and I00-I02 (rheumatic fever); . . . [Full text of this article]

Comment

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Gulliford, M., Latinovic, R., Charlton, J., Little, P., van Staa, T., Ashworth, M. (2009). Selective decrease in consultations and antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory tract infections in UK primary care up to 2006. J Public Health (Oxf) 31: 512-520 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Winchester, C. C., Macfarlane, T. V., Thomas, M., Price, D. (2009). Antibiotic Prescribing and Outcomes of Lower Respiratory Tract Infection in UK Primary Care. Chest 135: 1163-1172 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Thompson, P L, Spyridis, N, Sharland, M, Gilbert, R E, Saxena, S, Long, P F, Johnson, A P, Wong, I C K (2009). Changes in clinical indications for community antibiotic prescribing for children in the UK from 1996 to 2006: will the new NICE prescribing guidance on upper respiratory tract infections just be ignored?. Arch. Dis. Child. 94: 337-340 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Thompson, P. L., Gilbert, R. E., Long, P. F., Saxena, S., Sharland, M., Wong, I. C. K. (2009). Effect of Antibiotics for Otitis Media on Mastoiditis in Children: A Retrospective Cohort Study Using the United Kingdom General Practice Research Database. Pediatrics 123: 424-430 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Thompson, P. L., Gilbert, R. E., Long, P. F., Saxena, S., Sharland, M., Wong, I. C. K. (2008). Has UK guidance affected general practitioner antibiotic prescribing for otitis media in children?. J Public Health (Oxf) 30: 479-486 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Davey, P., Ferech, M., Ansari, F., Muller, A., Goossens, H., on behalf of the ESAC Project Group, (2008). Outpatient antibiotic use in the four administrations of the UK: cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis. J Antimicrob Chemother 62: 1441-1447 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Ladhani, S., Heath, P. T., Ramsay, M. E., Slack, M. P. E. (2008). Changes in antibiotic resistance rates of invasive Haemophilus influenzae isolates in England and Wales over the last 20 years. J Antimicrob Chemother 62: 776-779 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Ho, D., Rotenberg, B. W., Berkowitz, R. G. (2008). The Relationship Between Acute Mastoiditis and Antibiotic Use for Acute Otitis Media in Children. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 134: 45-48 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Roche, A., Heath, P. T, Sharland, M., Strachan, D., Breathnach, A., Haigh, J., Young, Y. (2007). Prevalence of nasopharyngeal carriage of pneumococcus in preschool children attending day care in London. Arch. Dis. Child. 92: 1073-1076 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Petersen, I, Johnson, A M, Islam, A, Duckworth, G, Livermore, D M, Hayward, A C (2007). Protective effect of antibiotics against serious complications of common respiratory tract infections: retrospective cohort study with the UK General Practice Research Database. BMJ 335: 982-982 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Riordan, T. (2007). Human Infection with Fusobacterium necrophorum (Necrobacillosis), with a Focus on Lemierre's Syndrome. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 20: 622-659 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Chung, A., Perera, R., Brueggemann, A. B, Elamin, A. E, Harnden, A., Mayon-White, R., Smith, S., Crook, D. W, Mant, D. (2007). Effect of antibiotic prescribing on antibiotic resistance in individual children in primary care: prospective cohort study. BMJ 335: 429-429 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Sharland, M., on behalf of the SACAR Paediatric Subgroup, (2007). The use of antibacterials in children: a report of the Specialist Advisory Committee on Antimicrobial Resistance (SACAR) Paediatric Subgroup. J Antimicrob Chemother 60: i15-i26 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Petersen, I., Hayward, A. C., on behalf of the SACAR Surveillance Subgroup, (2007). Antibacterial prescribing in primary care. J Antimicrob Chemother 60: i43-i47 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Woodhead, M., Finch, R., on behalf of the Public Education Subgroup of SACA, (2007). Public education a progress report. J Antimicrob Chemother 60: i53-i55 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Harnden, A., Perera, R., Brueggemann, A. B, Mayon-White, R., Crook, D. W, Thomson, A., Mant, D. (2007). Respiratory infections for which general practitioners consider prescribing an antibiotic: a prospective study. Arch. Dis. Child. 92: 594-597 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Donnelly, D., Critchlow, A., Everard, M. L (2007). Outcomes in children treated for persistent bacterial bronchitis. Thorax 62: 80-84 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Twine, C, Gateley, C A (2006). Antibiotic prescription for patients referred to a specialist breast clinic. Postgrad. Med. J. 82: 771-773 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Little, P. (2006). Delayed prescribing--a sensible approach to the management of acute otitis media.. JAMA 296: 1290-1291 [Full text]  
• Everitt, H. A, Little, P. S, Smith, P. W F (2006). A randomised controlled trial of management strategies for acute infective conjunctivitis in general practice. BMJ 333: 321- [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Mainous, A. G III, Saxena, S., Hueston, W. J, Everett, C. J, Majeed, A. (2006). Ambulatory antibiotic prescribing for acute bronchitis and cough and hospital admissions for respiratory infections: time trends analysis. JRSM 99: 358-362 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Little, P. (2005). Delayed prescribing of antibiotics for upper respiratory tract infection. BMJ 331: 301-302 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

detection of mastoiditis is being damaged by fragmentation of care

sarah C Jarvis, et al.
bmj.com, 29 Jun 2005 [Full text]

The burden to primary care caused by ‘waiting’ for a tonsillectomy

Arvind Singh, et al.
bmj.com, 15 Jul 2005 [Full text]

Coding error may also explain stable peritonsillar and rheumatic fever rates

Bruce Willoughby
bmj.com, 15 Aug 2005 [Full text]

Clarify PPA data on children's antibiotics?

Karen Button, et al.
bmj.com, 25 Aug 2005 [Full text]

Direct presentation to hospital may be a reason for the increased incidence of mastoiditis

Victoria J Possamai, et al.
bmj.com, 29 Sep 2005 [Full text]

Online poll

Find out more on doc2doc >>