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Reduction in diarrheal rates through interventions that prevent unnecessary antibiotic exposure early in life in an observational birth cohort
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Nov 30 2015
Source: J Epidemiol Community Health. 70(5):500-505. -
Alternative Title:J Epidemiol Community Health
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Personal Author:
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Description:Background
Antibiotic treatment early in life is often not needed and has been associated with increased rates of subsequent diarrhea. We estimated the impact of realistic interventions, which would prevent unnecessary antibiotic exposures before 6 months of age, on reducing childhood diarrheal rates.
Methods
In data from a prospective observational cohort study conducted in Vellore, India, we used the parametric g-formula to model diarrheal incidence rate differences contrasting the observed incidence of diarrhea to the incidence expected under hypothetical interventions. The interventions prevented unnecessary antibiotic treatments for non-bloody diarrhea, vomiting, and upper respiratory infections before 6 months of age. We also modeled targeted interventions, in which unnecessary antibiotic use was prevented only among children who had already stopped exclusive breastfeeding.
Results
More than half of all antibiotic exposures before 6 months (58.9%) were likely unnecessary. The incidence rate difference associated with removing unnecessary antibiotic use before 6 months of age was -0.28 (95% confidence interval: -0.46, -0.08) episodes per 30 child-months. This implies that preventing unnecessary antibiotic exposures in just 4 children would reduce the incidence of diarrhea by one from 6 months to 3 years of age.
Conclusions
Interventions to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use among young children could result in an important reduction in diarrheal rates. This work provides an example application of statistical methods which can further the aim of presenting epidemiologic findings that are relevant to public health practice.
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Pubmed ID:26621194
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Pubmed Central ID:PMC5030489
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