1362. Antibiotic Prescribing for Acute Otitis Media in Commercially Insured Pediatric Patients in the United States

Abstract

BackgroundOverprescribing of antibiotics to treat conditions that are self-limiting and do not always require antibiotics is a well-recognized concern in pediatric care. The 2013 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) acute otitis media (AOM) guidelines reinforced previous recommendations regarding watchful waiting for three days among patients with non-recurrent uncomplicated AOM and provided more explicit diagnostic criteria.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study using the IBM Marketscan Commercial Claims Research Databases (2008-2018). Pediatric patients 1 to 12 years old were included. We required a primary diagnosis of AOM in an outpatient setting, without AOM or other complicated ear infections within 6 months prior and no other acute infections in the 2 weeks prior to or 1 week after AOM diagnosis. Patients were classified as treated (pharmacy dispensing record of antibiotics within 3 days of diagnosis) or watchful waiting (no treatment or treatment after > 3 days). We used segmented linear regression to examine changes in treatment proportions across the study period.ResultsWe identified 2,640,920 pediatric AOM episodes, of which 2,033,697 (77.0%) were treated within 3 days. The majority of episodes were treated with amoxicillin (51.3%), followed by amoxicillin/clavulanate (15.3%) and cephalosporins (22.0%). Among episodes in the watchful waiting group, 18,793 (3.1%) filled a prescription within 4-7 days of diagnosis. Most patients saw a pediatrician (62.7%). A larger proportion of otolaryngologists adopted watchful waiting approaches compared to other physician types. There was no difference in chronic conditions or regional variation between the two groups. There was no immediate (p=0.31) or gradual change in treatment proportion (p=0.49) after release of the 2013 guidelines.ConclusionMost pediatric patients continue to be treated with antibiotics within three days of AOM diagnosis, reflecting no impact of the 2013 AAP guidelines. Physician specialty but not patient characteristics appear to determine treatment approaches.DisclosuresNicole Smolinski, PharMD, Nothing to disclose