Research

Antibiotic resistance among children is on the rise.Over the past decade, the number of penicillin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae infections in Can-adian children grew from 2.5 % to 13%.1 Antibiotic resis-tance complicates the treatment of infections and increases the risk of further illness and death.2 An association be-tween antibiotic resistance and antibiotic use has been doc-umented for children. Although the chain of causality is unclear, the selection of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has been promoted by multiple courses of antibiotics, long du-ration of antibiotic treatment, first-line treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics and antibiotic treatment of viral respiratory tract infections (VRTIs).3–8 Although many of these practices are not considered as evidence-based pre-scribing of antibiotics, they do occur regularly.9–17 A number of Canadian and US studies have suggested that the prescription of antibiotics is influenced by physician char