Abstract
BackgroundAntibiotic resistance is one of the world’s biggest public health issues, and the situation in China is particularly grave. The objective of this study is to investigate the antibiotics usage pattern among Chinese children and provide further insight in developing strategies for promoting public health education.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study, in the study, participants are from 53,665 guardians of children aged 0–6 years, who were recruited with multistage stratified random cluster sampling in 2013/2014 from 46 community health centers in 14 provinces across China Mainland. Children’s guardians completed surveys on their previous experience on using antibiotics in treating diarrhea of their children without a prescription from any pediatrician. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidential intervals (CIs) for the association between antibiotic use and its predictors were estimated using multilevel logistic regression models, with antibiotic rational use group as a reference group.ResultsThe prevalence of antibiotic misuse among children with diarrhea in the eastern, middle and western areas of China and associations between antibiotic misuse and its predictors were studied. The average rate of antibiotic misuse is 35.12%. Multilevel logistic regression revealed that living in urban areas (OR = 0.79 (0.76, 0.83)), female children (OR = 0.92 (0.88, 0.96)), guardians having higher education (OR = 0.60 (0.55, 0.66)), being raised by parents (OR = 0.90 (0.85, 0.94)), guardians having basic health knowledge (OR = 0.82 (0.79, 0.86)) are protective factors and children’s age (1–3 years OR = 1.62 (1.54, 1.71)); 4–6 years OR = 1.90 (1.77, 2.03)) is a risk factor of antibiotic misuse among children aged 0–6 years with diarrhea in China.ConclusionsOur findings confirmed that there has been a high rate of antibiotic misuse without a prescription in children with diarrhea in China, which requires considerable attention. Suitable regulations and interventions are needed to solve this problem.
Highlights
The abuse of antibiotics has been identified as an emerging threat to global public health because unnecessary use of antibiotics can result in antibiotic resistance to pathogenic
Under “One-child” policy in China, a majority of parents worry excessively when their children suffer from the diarrhea. They prefer to give antibiotics to their children without prescriptions. Against this background, using the data from the Health Management Survey for children aged 0–6 years, we present the prevalence and its determinants of self-medication use among the national child population in China, focusing on infant and preschool children diarrhea, one of the common diseases among children aged 0–6 years
This study revealed important findings, related to inappropriate public practice of antibiotic use in children aged 0–6 who had the disease of diarrhea
Summary
The abuse of antibiotics has been identified as an emerging threat to global public health because unnecessary use of antibiotics can result in antibiotic resistance to pathogenicHow to cite this article Li et al (2016), Antibiotic misuse among children with diarrhea in China: results from a national survey. Findings from many studies have showed that inappropriate use of antibiotics is strongly associated with demographic characteristics, including education level (Hoffmann et al, 2014; Kim, Moon & Kim, 2011; Mouhieddine et al, 2015), family income (Barah & Goncalves, 2010; Mouhieddine et al, 2015; You et al, 2008), place of residence (Godycki-Cwirko et al, 2014), as well as other factors, such as gender, age and parenting styles of the children (Bi, Tong & Parton, 2000). Suitable regulations and interventions are needed to solve this problem
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