PLoS ONE (Jan 2023)

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and multiplex polymerase chain reaction test on outpatient antibiotic prescriptions for pediatric respiratory infection.

  • Daisuke Kitagawa,
  • Taito Kitano,
  • Madoka Furumori,
  • Soma Suzuki,
  • Yui Shintani,
  • Hiroki Nishikawa,
  • Rika Suzuki,
  • Naohiro Yamamoto,
  • Masayuki Onaka,
  • Atsuko Nishiyama,
  • Takehito Kasamatsu,
  • Naoyuki Shiraishi,
  • Yuki Suzuki,
  • Akiyo Nakano,
  • Ryuichi Nakano,
  • Hisakazu Yano,
  • Koichi Maeda,
  • Sayaka Yoshida,
  • Fumihiko Nakamura

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278932
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 18, no. 1
p. e0278932

Abstract

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This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic on outpatient antibiotic prescriptions for pediatric respiratory infections at an acute care hospital in Japan in order to direct future pediatric outpatient antibiotic stewardship. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the FilmArray Respiratory Panel (RP) on outpatient antibiotic prescriptions was assessed from January 2019 to December 2021 using an interrupted time series analysis of children <20 years. The overall antimicrobial prescription rate decreased from 38.7% to 22.4% from the pre-pandemic period to the pandemic. The pandemic (relative risk [RR] level, 0.97 [0.58-1.61]; P = 0.90; RR slope, 1.05 [0.95-1.17] per month; P = 0.310) and FilmArray RP (RR level, 0.90 [0.46-1.75]; P = 0.75; RR slope, 0.95 [0.85-1.06] per month; P = 0.330) had no significant effect on the monthly antibiotic prescription rates. The COVID-19 pandemic was not significantly related to the antibiotic prescription rate, suggesting that it did not impact physicians' behavior toward antibiotic prescriptions. Replacing rapid antigen tests with the FilmArray RP introduced on December 1, 2020, did not affect the magnitude of the reduction in antibiotic prescription rate for pediatric respiratory infections.