Prescribing Pattern of Antibiotics in Pediatric Patients in the Jazan Region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Objective: The main objective is to study the prescribing pattern of antibiotic in hospital pediatric in-patient. Method: An observational and retrospective study of two month’s duration was undertaken during April-May of 2014. A total number of 144 patients were taken for the study. Results: The mean age of patient on antibiotic was 3.71 ± 3.62. 209 antibiotics were prescribed to the patients and the average number of antibiotics per prescription was 1.45 ± 0.58. Fever (12.5%) and pneumonia (9.7%) were most frequently found diseases in infants, while other diseases constitute 47.9%. Cephalosporin group of antibiotics were most frequently (52%) prescribed antibiotics, followed by aminoglycoside group (17.3%), penicillins (12.5%), macrolides (8.3%) and quinolones (0.69%). Most of the antibiotics were administered parenterally for inpatients. Conclusion: Antibiotic prescribing in children is relatively high in Jazan region of Saudi Arabia. Prescription of broad-spectrum antibiotics though has increased demonstrably which may result in development of bacterial resistance; however development of guidelines for antibiotic prescription and use of appropriate drugs for the disease can result in minimizing the unfavorable use of antibiotics in children.