Drug prescribing for children in general practice. A report from the Møre & Romsdal Prescription Study

Abstract

To investigate general practitioners' drug prescribing patterns for children (0–12 y), an observational, cross‐sectional study was conducted in Western Norway. Seven thousand, two hundred and twenty‐nine GP‐patient contacts during which 5222 drugs were prescribed, were included for analysis. The highest prescribing rates were for boys <2y (82.1 prescriptions per 100 contacts). Two‐thirds of all prescriptions were for drugs in main groups respiratory system or systemic antiinfectives. The 20 most commonly prescribed agents comprised 75% of all prescriptions. The 20 most frequently recorded diagnoses for prescribing comprised 81% of all. Phenoxymethylpenicillin was the most frequently prescribed antibiotic for otitis, tonsillitis and sinusitis, while erythromycin was used most often for bronchitis and pneumonia. Antibiotics were prescribed in more than 8/10 contacts for tonsillitis, sinusitis, acute bronchitis and pneumonia, and in two‐thirds of all contacts for urinary tract infections. Sixty‐five percent of the antibiotic prescriptions for urinary tract infections were for co‐trimoxazole.