Community antibiotic prescribing for children in France from 2015 to 2017: a cross-sectional national study

To assess recent community antibiotic prescribing for French children and identify areas of potential improvement.

We analysed 221 768 paediatric (<15 years) visits in a national sample of 680 French GPs and 70 community paediatricians (IQVIA’s EPPM database), from March 2015 to February 2017, excluding well-child visits. We calculated antibiotic prescription rates per 100 visits, separately for GPs and paediatricians. For respiratory tract infections (RTIs), we described broad-spectrum antibiotic use and duration of treatment. We used Poisson regression to identify factors associated with antibiotic prescribing.

Future antibiotic stewardship campaigns should target presumed viral RTIs, broad-spectrum antibiotic use and GPs aged ≥50 years.