Antibiotic prescribing for children in primary care and adherence to treatment guidelines

OBJECTIVES: Antibiotic use is unnecessarily high for paediatric respiratory tract infections (RTIs) in primary care, and implementation of treatment guidelines is difficult in practice. This study aims to assess guideline adherence to antibiotic prescribing for RTIs in children and examine potential variations across Dutch general practices. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective observational study, deriving data on diagnoses and prescriptions from the electronic health records-based NIVEL Primary Care Database. Patients