Impact of clinical pharmacist intervention in promoting rational antibiotic use in pediatric patients

Antibiotics are the most important class of drugs for major advancement in medical treatment but the efficacy of these medication diminishes upon its extensive use. In children, antibiotic is the most immensely used medications, that can be a lifesaving treatment in certain bacterial infections. Inappropriate use of these medications in pediatric population may cause drug toxicity, adverse events, and drug resistance.

This study aims at analyzing the antibiotic use among pediatric population and to evaluate the impact of an intervention by clinical pharmacist in minimizing inappropriate antibiotic use by creating awareness among both patient bystanders and physician.

A one-year prospective interventional research was performed in a 750 bedded hospital of south India. 180 subjects were randomly enrolled from the pediatric inpatients of the hospital and all relevant information were obtained from their case file and analyzed for irrational antibiotic use, and also a questionnaire was circulated among patient’s bystanders to assess their knowledge about antibiotics. Several strategies were developed and implemented through leaflets to reduce the inappropriate antibiotic use. Audits were conducted to assess the acceptance of strategies and to find out the impact of clinical pharmacist intervention.

Data were collected from 180 patient’s and in that male subjects were dominant (n= 108, 60%) from that of females (n= 72, 40%). In this study beta-lactam antibiotic (35.21%) are predominantly used in pediatrics and were most commonly prescribed for the treatment of respiratory tract infection (33.33%). In pre-intervention phase, inappropriate use of antibiotic was most commonly observed with wrong drug choice (23.3%) and poor knowledge on antibiotics, which was resolved to some extent with clinical pharmacist intervention in the post-intervention phase.

Lack of knowledge was the prime reason irrational antibiotic use. Educational interventions and effective communication between healthcare professionals should be encouraged and physicians should adhere to antibiotic prescribing guidelines.