Park Ji Young, Kang Hyun Mi
Department of Pediatrics, Korea University Ansan Hospital, Ansan 15355, Republic of Korea.
Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 06591, Republic of Korea.
Antibiotics (Basel). 2024 Mar 9;13(3):249. doi: 10.3390/antibiotics13030249.
This study aimed to investigate national data for a quantitative evaluation of antibiotic usage in Korean children during the pre- and early COVID-19 period. This was a cross-sectional study from 2016 to 2021 of children <18 years, grouped by age (0, 1, 2-4, 5-11, and 12-17 years) and city/province. Systemic antibiotic prescriptions, days of administration, and population by age and region were collected. Days of therapy (DOT)/1000 pediatric inhabitant per day (PID) was used for antibiotic quantitative monitoring. A total of 257,088,265 antibiotic doses were prescribed to 170,309,944 children during the 6-year period. The highest DOT during the entire study period was observed in the 1-year age group, followed by the 2-4- and 0-year age groups. The highest DOT was observed in 2019, with 72.8 DOT/1000 PID in the 1-year age group, which fell to 34.7 DOT/1000 PID in 2020, however, DOT soon increased at similar rates to that in the pre-COVID-19 period. A higher DOT/1000 PID was observed for third-generation cephalosporins in 58.8% of the regions compared to beta-lactam/beta-lactamase inhibitors. To conclude, reductions in antibiotic use during the early COVID-19 pandemic period were not maintained. Further interventions are needed to decrease antibiotic overuse and misuse.
本研究旨在调查韩国儿童在新冠疫情前及疫情初期抗生素使用情况的全国数据，以进行定量评估。这是一项对2016年至2021年18岁以下儿童进行的横断面研究，按年龄（0岁、1岁、2至4岁、5至11岁和12至17岁）和城市/省份分组。收集了全身用抗生素处方、给药天数以及按年龄和地区划分的人口数据。采用每日每1000名儿童居民的治疗天数（DOT）进行抗生素定量监测。在这6年期间，共为170,309,944名儿童开具了257,088,265剂抗生素。在整个研究期间，1岁年龄组的DOT最高，其次是2至4岁和0岁年龄组。DOT最高值出现在2019年，1岁年龄组为72.8 DOT/1000 PID，2020年降至34.7 DOT/1000 PID，不过，DOT随后很快以与新冠疫情前相似的速度上升。与β-内酰胺/β-内酰胺酶抑制剂相比，58.8%的地区第三代头孢菌素的DOT/1000 PID更高。总之，新冠疫情初期抗生素使用的减少并未持续。需要进一步采取干预措施以减少抗生素的过度使用和滥用。
