Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jul 31;15(1):e1-e7.
doi: 10.4102/phcfm.v15i1.4106.

Antibiotic prescription among children with common cold at a district hospital in Uganda

Brenda Tusubira  1 , Lillian N Mukisa, Vicent Okuuny, Innocent Besigye
Affiliations

Antibiotic prescription among children with common cold at a district hospital in Uganda

Brenda Tusubira et al. Afr J Prim Health Care Fam Med. .

Abstract

Background: Most childhood infections are of viral origin making antibiotics unnecessary. They are, however, the most frequently prescribed drugs dispensed to children, resulting in inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions, which are one of the main drivers of antibiotic resistance.

Aim: The study aimed to determine the prevalence of antibiotic prescriptions and identify its associated factors among children below 5 years with common cold who attend the outpatient department in Tororo General Hospital.

Setting: The study was carried out in Tororo General Hospital, Eastern Uganda.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey using consecutive sampling was performed among children below 5 years with common cold attending the outpatient department. Data were collected using an interviewer-administered, structured questionnaire and analysed using STATA version 14.0. Prevalence of antibiotic prescriptions was calculated. Bivariate analysis using chi-square test and multivariate analysis using logistic regression was performed to establish factors associated with antibiotic prescription.

Results: The prevalence of antibiotic prescriptions for common cold among children below 5 years was 23.3%. Factors associated with antibiotic prescription for common cold were duration of symptoms of more than 5 days (OR, 95% CI: 4.49; 1.16-17.23, p = 0.029) and being attended to by a clinical officer (OR, 95% CI: 0.19; 0.04-0.91, p = 0.038).

Conclusion: There is inappropriate antibiotic prescription among children with common cold in Tororo General Hospital. There is need for antibiotic stewardship programmes to promote optimal antibiotic use in primary care facilities.Contribution: The study's findings can be used to develop context-specific antibiotic stewardship programmes tailored to promote judicious use of antibiotics in primary care.

Keywords: Uganda.; children; inappropriate antibiotic prescription; respiratory tract infections.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Proportion of children who were prescribed antibiotics among different levels of health professional cadre.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Clavenna A, Bonati M. Drug prescriptions to outpatient children: A review of the literature. Eur J Clin Pharmacol. 2009;65(8):749–755. 10.1007/s00228-009-0679-7 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Fink G, D’Acremont V, Leslie HH, Cohen J. Antibiotic exposure among children younger than 5 years in low-income and middle-income countries: A cross-sectional study of nationally representative facility-based and household-based surveys. Lancet Infect Dis. 2020;20(2):179–187. 10.1016/S1473-3099(19)30572-9 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kutty N. Treating children without antibiotics in primary healthcare. Oman Med J. 2011;26(5):303–305. 10.5001/omj.2011.77 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Holmes AH, Moore LS, Sundsfjord A, et al. . Understanding the mechanisms and drivers of antimicrobial resistance. Lancet. 2016;387(10014):176–187. 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)00473-0 - DOI - PubMed
    1. WHO . Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance. WHO, editor. Geneva: World Health Organisation; 2015.

Substances

LinkOut - more resources