Dissertation
Antibiotic resistance and prescribing in children hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
Jun 2011
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/etd-6728
Abstract
Pneumonia causes more deaths in children under 5 years old worldwide than malaria, AIDS and measles combined. Community-acquired pneumonia occurs annually in about 4 million children under 5 years old in the United States and is typically caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. Substantial variability exists in the management of this disease. The variability in the management of pediatric pneumonia is due to all aspects of the disease, including but not limited to the numerous agents that cause the disease, the lack of a gold standard diagnostic test and the lack of national guidelines regarding treatment. This variability in treatment has resulted in the use of unnecessarily broad spectrum antibiotics leading to more resistant organisms becoming more prevalent in the community. The prevalence of penicillin resistance in S. pneumoniae has increased over the past decade, but penicillin is found to be still effective clinically in treating nonsusceptible pneumococci. Accredited hospitals in the U.S. document antibiotic susceptibility patterns of S. pneumoniae and it is unclear whether the hospital-reported susceptibility patterns influence the clinician's prescribing patterns. It is also unknown if prescribing broader spectrum antibiotics to patients have similar outcomes to patients who are prescribed narrower spectrum antibiotics, for instance penicillin alone. This research examines the variability that exists in managing pediatric pneumonia by using existing data from 20,000 patients collected from over 30 tertiary care children's hospitals across the United States.
Metrics
46 File views/ downloads
26 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Antibiotic resistance and prescribing in children hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia
- Creators
- Lilliam Vanessa Ambroggio - DU
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Epidemiology and Biostatistics [Historical]; School of Public Health (2002-2015); Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 6728; 991014632189904721