Atopic children and use of prescribed medication: A comprehensive study in general practice

A comprehensive and representative nationwide general practice database was explored to study associations between atopic disorders and prescribed medication in children. All children aged 0-18 years listed in the NIVEL Primary Care Database in 2014 were selected. Atopic children with atopic eczema,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one Vol. 12; no. 8; p. e0182664
Main Authors: Pols, David H. J., Nielen, Mark M. J., Bohnen, Arthur M., Korevaar, Joke C., Bindels, Patrick J. E.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Public Library of Science 24.08.2017
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:
Adolescent
Allergic rhinitis
Antibiotics
Asthma
Asthma - drug therapy
Atopic dermatitis
Atopy
Biology and Life Sciences
Child
Child, Preschool
Children
Children & youth
Classification
Codes
Comorbidity
Dermatitis, Atopic - drug therapy
Dermatologic Agents - therapeutic use
Disorders
Dosage and administration
Drug therapy
Drug Utilization Review
Drugs
Eczema
Female
Food allergies
General Practice - organization & administration
Health aspects
Health services
Humans
Infant
Laxatives
Male
Medicine and Health Sciences
Morbidity
Netherlands
Pediatrics
People and Places
Physical Sciences
Population
Prescriptions
Primary care
Regression analysis
Rhinitis
Rhinitis, Allergic - drug therapy
Skin diseases
ISSN:1932-6203, 1932-6203
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A comprehensive and representative nationwide general practice database was explored to study associations between atopic disorders and prescribed medication in children. All children aged 0-18 years listed in the NIVEL Primary Care Database in 2014 were selected. Atopic children with atopic eczema, asthma and allergic rhinitis (AR) were matched with controls (not diagnosed with any of these disorders) within the same general practice on age and gender. Logistic regression analyses were performed to study the differences in prescribed medication between both groups by calculating odds ratios (OR); 93 different medication groups were studied. A total of 45,964 children with at least one atopic disorder were identified and matched with controls. Disorder-specific prescriptions seem to reflect evidence-based medicine guidelines for atopic eczema, asthma and AR. However, these disorder-specific prescriptions were also prescribed for children who were not registered as having that specific disorder. For eczema-related medication, about 3.7-8.4% of the children with non-eczematous atopic morbidity received these prescriptions, compared to 1.4-3.5% of the non-atopic children. The same pattern was observed for anti-asthmatics (having non-asthmatic atopic morbidity: 0.8-6.2% vs. controls: 0.3-2.1%) and AR-related medication (having non-AR atopic morbidity: 4.7-12.5% vs. controls: 2.8-3.1%). Also, non-atopic related medication, such as laxatives and antibiotics were more frequently prescribed for atopic children. The present study shows that atopic children received more prescriptions, compared to non-atopic children. Non-atopic controls frequently received specific prescriptions for atopic disorders. This indicates that children with atopic disorders need better monitoring by their GP.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
content type line 23
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Conceptualization: DP AB PB MN JK.Data curation: DP MN JK.Formal analysis: DP MN.Funding acquisition: AB PB.Investigation: DP MN.Methodology: DP MN.Project administration: DP.Resources: MN JK.Software: DP MN JK.Supervision: MN AB JK PB.Validation: DP MN.Visualization: DP MN.Writing – original draft: DP.Writing – review & editing: DP MN JK AB PB.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0182664