Department of Pediatrics, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.
Department of Pediatrics, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland.
Acta Paediatr. 2022 Feb;111(2):376-382. doi: 10.1111/apa.16144. Epub 2021 Oct 28.
Nationwide lockdowns and social restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic have reduced childhood infections. We assessed how many items of systemic antibiotics and asthma medicines were dispensed to children aged 0-12 years in Finland before and during the pandemic and analysed the reimbursement costs.
The data came from the national Finnish register of reimbursable prescriptions, which is maintained by the country's Social Insurance Institution. It included all prescriptions for antibiotics and asthma medicines dispensed to children aged 0-12 years in 2019 and 2020. Prescription rates per 1000 children were calculated for each quarter and compared using rate ratios and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI).
Overall dispensing for antibiotics decreased by 55.3% and was most prominent for macrolides for children aged 0-5 years (59.6%, 95% CI 60.9%-58.2%). Asthma medicines decreased by 19.8%, and the most prominent reduction was in short-acting beta-agonists for children aged 0-5 years (35.2%, 95% CI 36.1%-34.2%). These reduced reimbursement costs by 3.4 million Euros from 2019 to 2020.
This nationwide study showed that the number of antibiotics and asthma medicines decreased by 59.6% and 19.8% respectively from 2019 to 2020, generating a cost saving of 3.4 million Euros.
COVID-19 大流行期间的全国性封锁和社会限制减少了儿童感染。我们评估了芬兰在大流行前后 0-12 岁儿童使用的全身性抗生素和哮喘药物的数量，并分析了报销费用。
数据来自国家芬兰可报销处方登记处，由该国社会保险机构维护。它包括 2019 年和 2020 年向 0-12 岁儿童开具的所有抗生素和哮喘药物的处方。每个季度计算每 1000 名儿童的处方率，并使用率比和 95%置信区间（95%CI）进行比较。
总体抗生素使用率下降了 55.3%，0-5 岁儿童的大环内酯类抗生素下降最为明显（59.6%，95%CI 60.9%-58.2%）。哮喘药物使用率下降了 19.8%，0-5 岁儿童的短效β-激动剂下降最为明显（35.2%，95%CI 36.1%-34.2%）。这使得 2019 年至 2020 年的报销费用减少了 340 万欧元。
这项全国性研究表明，2019 年至 2020 年抗生素和哮喘药物的使用量分别下降了 59.6%和 19.8%，节省了 340 万欧元的费用。
