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Antimicrobial Stewardship Strategies Including Point-of-Care Testing (POCT) for Pediatric Patients with

Costanza Vicentini1, Lorenzo Vola1, Christian Previti1

  • 1Department of Public Health Sciences and Pediatrics, University of Turin, 10126 Turin, Italy.

Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland)
|August 26, 2022
PubMed

Insights

Point-of-care tests (POCTs) can help reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions for pediatric upper-respiratory-tract infections (URTIs). These tests aid in distinguishing viral from bacterial causes, supporting antimicrobial stewardship in primary care.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric infectious diseases
  • Health economics
  • Antimicrobial stewardship

Background:

  • Upper-respiratory-tract infections (URTIs) are a leading cause of antibiotic prescriptions in children.
  • A significant proportion of these prescriptions are inappropriate, as most URTIs are viral.
  • Distinguishing bacterial from viral URTIs is crucial for appropriate treatment.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To systematically review health-economic evaluations of point-of-care tests (POCTs) for URTIs in pediatric outpatients.
  • To summarize the evidence on the cost-effectiveness and value of POCTs in this setting.

Main Methods:

  • Systematic literature review following PRISMA guidelines.
  • Screening of 3375 records from multiple databases.
  • Inclusion of 8 studies reporting health-economic evaluations.

Main Results:

  • Five of the eight included studies favored strategies incorporating POCTs.
  • One study found certain POCTs to be cost-effective compared to usual care.
  • Reporting quality of included studies ranged from medium to high.

Conclusions:

  • Point-of-care tests (POCTs) show promise as a valuable tool for antimicrobial stewardship in childhood URTIs.
  • POCTs can support more judicious antibiotic prescribing in primary care settings.
  • Further economic evaluations support the integration of POCTs into clinical practice for pediatric URTIs.

Keywords:
C-reactive protein testschildrenhealth–economic evaluationsnucleic acid amplification testspoint-of-care testsprimary carerapid antigen-detection testsupper-respiratory-tract infections

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