WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

*Omar A. Daham Al Hamdani

ABSTRACT

Background: The overuse of antibiotics by doctors has drawn a lot of attention in the medical community. One major contributing factor to the fast emergence of antimicrobial resistance has been the prescription of antibiotics for conditions for which they are unlikely to be useful. Objectives: To show the prevalence of inappropriate antibiotic prescription for children with acute diarrhea and to determine factors associated with antibiotic overuse and underuse in the treatment of such cases at Al Khansa'a Teaching Hospital in Mosul between 1st of May 2024 to the end of June 2024. Methods: An observational, descriptive, cross- sectional study was adopted in order to achieve the objectives of the present study. All patients aged less than 10 years with acute watery diarrhea who attend emergency department of Al-Khansa’a Teaching Hospital were included in the study. The Questionnaire was composed of two parts, the first included demographic information of the patients and the second covered specific acute watery diarrhea information. Results: The study sample was 140 patients, the median (interquartile range) age of 2 (1-7) years, with 72 (51.4%) males and 68 (48.6%) females. Out of 140 subjects, 48 (34.3%) did not receive antibiotics, while 92 (65.7%) received antibiotics. Out of those 92 who received antibiotics, 69 (75%) had appropriate indications for the antibiotics, while 23 (25%) had inappropriate antibiotic usage. The antibiotics given were mainly ceftriaxone in 35%, followed by Metronidazole and 14.5%. There was no significant difference between the study groups who had inappropriate antibiotics, and those who were not prescribed antibiotics in the terms of age, gender, residency and parents’ education. Moreover; fever and vomiting shown to be statistically significant differences between the study groups. On the other hand, both groups were similar in terms of frequency of bowel motions, diarrhea duration, presence of bloody diarrhea, degree of the fever, presence of abdominal pain, as well as dehydration level. Conclusion: Antibiotic resistance represents a major worldwide health concern. A variety of researches, policy, and implementation strategies must be used to fight these phenomena. These strategies include educating healthcare workers about treatment guidelines and the consequences of nonadherence, disseminating local antibiotic susceptibility data in a way that helps make treatment decisions.

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