Provider-ordered viral testing and antibiotic administration practices among children with acute respiratory infections across healthcare settings in Nashville, Tennessee.

OBJECTIVE

Evaluate the association between provider-ordered viral testing and antibiotic treatment practices among children discharged from an ED or hospitalized with an acute respiratory infection (ARI).

DESIGN

Active, prospective ARI surveillance study from November 2017 to February 2020.

SETTING

Pediatric hospital and emergency department in Nashville, Tennessee.

PARTICIPANTS

Children 30 days to 17 years old seeking medical care for fever and/or respiratory symptoms.

METHODS

Antibiotics prescribed during the child's ED visit or administered during hospitalization were categorized into (1) None administered; (2) Narrow-spectrum; and (3) Broad-spectrum. Setting-specific models were built using unconditional polytomous logistic regression with robust sandwich estimators to estimate the adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals between provider-ordered viral testing (ie, tested versus not tested) and viral test result (ie, positive test versus not tested and negative test versus not tested) and three-level antibiotic administration.

RESULTS

4,107 children were enrolled and tested, of which 2,616 (64%) were seen in the ED and 1,491 (36%) were hospitalized. In the ED, children who received a provider-ordered viral test had 25% decreased odds (aOR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.54, 0.98) of receiving a narrow-spectrum antibiotic during their visit than those without testing. In the inpatient setting, children with a negative provider-ordered viral test had 57% increased odds (aOR: 1.57; 95% CI: 1.01, 2.44) of being administered a broad-spectrum antibiotic compared to children without testing.

CONCLUSIONS

In our study, the impact of provider-ordered viral testing on antibiotic practices differed by setting. Additional studies evaluating the influence of viral testing on antibiotic stewardship and antibiotic prescribing practices are needed.