Prescription practice in patients of upper respiratory tract infection at a pediatric outpatient clinic in Punjab

Upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) are the most common and frequently occurring infections in the paediatric population. Often, it has a viral origin and requires only symptomatic treatment. Very few patients require antibiotics. The prescriptions of children, diagnosed with URTI, over one year period of time, were studied to assess the utilization of drugs. Of 2981 patients, only 1078 patients were diagnosed to have URTI. This consisted of 598 male & 480 female patients. It was found that URTI was most common in the age group of 12–60 months (51%) followed by 1day-12 months (20%). URTI was found to be affect the patients mostly in winter (35%) followed by autumn (25%). Cough and cold combinations were the most commonly prescribed medicines in URTI (27% of total drugs prescribed) followed by antipyretics (21%), herbal cough and cold medicine (18%), saline nasal drops (15%), bronchodilators (8%), antihistamine (6%) and antibiotics (5%). It was found that 12% of the patients were prescribed an antibiotic. Amongst antibiotics, azithromycin was the most commonly prescribed followed by amoxicillin+clavulanic acid combination (61% and 31%). In this study, children less than 5 years of age were the ones diagnosed with URTI and this was highest during the winter season. Azithromycin was most commonly prescribed antibiotic. The antibiotic usage pattern reflects judicious choice of the prescriber.