Prescribed antibiotic use in Australian children aged 0-12 years

Background Children are commonly prescribed antibiotics; however, little is known about the extent of their use. Objective The objective of this study was to examine the current use of medicines in Australian children by using a large national dataset, with a special focus on antibiotics. Method The method for this study included a longitudinal study using the 10% random sample from the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) data. Children aged 0-12 years who were dispensed medicine(s) in 2013 were included, and prescribing patterns were reported. Results Population rates for children with at least one systemic antibiotic in 2013 were found to be 49% for those aged 0-4 years, 44% for those aged 5-9 years, and 33% for those aged 10-12 years. More than half (53%) of the children received single antibiotic dispensing, and the majority (71%) had no comorbid condition. Most of the time, antibiotics were dispensed without any other medicines. Discussion The high level of antibiotic use in children imposes the need to educate children and parents of the appropriate place of antibiotics in healthcare.