Profile of prescription medication in a pediatric population.

Abstract

This retrospective study describes the prescription medication profile in an outpatient pediatric population (n = 510) retrieved from a hospital pharmacy computer file. The survey covers a three-month period. The study population included 281 male and 229 female patients divided according to age into three groups: infant (age 0-12 months); children (age 1-12 years); and adolescents (age 13-18 years). Medications prescribed were classified according to their pharmacotherapeutic properties as described in the American Hospital Formulary Service Drug Information 87. The findings pointed out that three pharmacotherapeutic categories (the antiinfective/chemotherapeutic, central nervous system (CNS), and respiratory agents) constituted 78.1 percent of the 1402 prescribed medications. The most frequently prescribed agents in each of these categories were, respectively, amoxicillin, aminophylline, and acetaminophen. These agents represent recent advances in drug usage because they became most frequently used only within the past ten years. The age-dependent medication profile indicated that there was a higher prescription rate of antiinfectives and respiratory disorder agents in the younger age groups; in the adolescent group CNS agents were more often prescribed.