The study contributes to the growing recognition of adolescent self-poisoning as a serious paediatric mental health issue. It also confirmed that an increase in adolescent hospitalizations due to self-poisoning has occurred in NL. Further research is warranted to identify effective prevention strategies for this serious problem.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Bronchiolitis is a common lower respiratory tract infection that affects infants and young children. Because of variability in physician practice, inpatient management varies among pediatricians. In 2014, the Canadian Pediatric Society published national guidelines aimed at standardizing the inpatient management of this illness, which included recommending against the need for antibiotics for most patients. The study objective was to evaluate antibiotic prescription and supportive investigations for inpatient management of bronchiolitis before and after the publication of national guidelines. METHODS: This study was a single-center retrospective chart review of inpatients with bronchiolitis. We included healthy children 1 to 24 months of age who were admitted from November 2011 to October 2016. Those admitted before December 2014 were analyzed in the preguidelines cohort; the remaining, in the postguidelines cohort. The main outcome was antibiotic prescription. The secondary outcome was the frequency of chest radiographs, nasopharyngeal swabs, and blood cultures. RESULTS: A total of 131 patients were included in the first cohort; 71, in the second cohort. The rates of antibiotic initiation were almost equal in both cohorts (∼44%; P 5 .98). More antibiotics were discontinued during hospitalization in the second cohort compared with the first cohort (10% vs 20%; P 5 .001). Significantly fewer patients were discharged with antibiotics in the second cohort (31% vs 16%; P 5 .02). CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed a reduction in antibiotic use after the release of national guidelines, illustrating that antibiotic prescribing practices can change. However, there is still a pressing need for local initiatives to continue to reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics within the pediatric setting.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.