Assessment of Antibiotics Use for Hospitalized Children in Butajira General Hospital, Southern Part of Ethiopia

Drugs including antibiotics are among the important components of heath care systems. However, they are not used appropriately to their maximum potential. The aim of this study was to assess extent of antibiotics use among hospitalized pediatric patients in Butajira general hospital, Ethiopia.
A cross sectional study was conducted on the 120 hospitalized pediatric patients’ medical cards using data abstraction format. A patient’s medical card was selected by simple random sampling after cards were arranged in chronological order. Data were analyzed by using statistical package for social science for windows version 20.0.
The results revealed that almost three quarter 74.7% (248/332) of pediatric patients were prescribed with antibiotics with an average of 2.07 antibiotics per a patient. Two thirds 66.9% (166/248) of antibiotics treatments were supported by laboratory investigations; and more than three quarters 83.9% (208/248) of them were administered through parenteral routes. Ceftriaxone 20.9% (52/248) and gentamicin 21.7% (54/248) were the most commonly used antibiotics; and acute gastroenteritis 14.2% (17/120) and pneumonia 48.3% (58/120) were the most common causes of hospitalization among the pediatric patients.
This study has demonstrated that there was high prevalence of antibiotics use and poly pharmacy practices among hospitalized pediatric patients. There was also prescribing of antibiotics without laboratory investigations.