Use of medications in children hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia

Abstract

The aim is to characterize the use of medications in pediatric inpatients with community-acquired pneumonia.Materials and methods. Medical records of 547 children treated for community-acquired pneumonia in 4 medical organizations in St. Petersburg over 2015-2017 were analyzed.The results of this retrospective study (N = 547) showed that children aged 1 to 3 years were most vulnerable (31.44%). Along with that, 45.70% of patients had concomitant diseases; among those, acute respiratory infections of the upper respiratory tract prevailed (32.20%). As for the medications, the category J drugs “Antimicrobials of systemic action” were most commonly used (30.30%) and contributed the largest part in the total drug costs (80.22%). Specifically, the greatest contribution was made by the J01D group «Beta-lactam antibacterial drugs, other» (64.54%); their cost took 77.22% of the expenses and covered 48.97% of the drug list.