RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Alarm signs and antibiotic prescription in febrile children in primary care: an observational cohort study JF British Journal of General Practice JO Br J Gen Pract FD British Journal of General Practice SP e437 OP e444 DO 10.3399/bjgp13X669158 VO 63 IS 612 A1 Gijs Elshout A1 Yvette van Ierland A1 Arthur M Bohnen A1 Marcel de Wilde A1 Rianne Oostenbrink A1 Henriƫtte A Moll A1 Marjolein Y Berger YR 2013 UL http://bjgp.org/content/63/612/e437.abstract AB Background Although fever in children is often self-limiting, antibiotics are frequently prescribed for febrile illnesses. GPs may consider treating serious infections by prescribing antibiotics.Aim To examine whether alarm signs and/or symptoms for serious infections are related to antibiotic prescription in febrile children in primary care.Design and setting Observational cohort study involving five GP out-of-hours services.Method Clinical information was registered and manually recoded. Children (<16 years) with fever having a face-to-face contact with a GP were included. Children who were already using antibiotics or referred to secondary care were excluded. The relation between alarm signs and/or symptoms for serious infections and antibiotic prescription was tested using multivariate logistic regression.Results Of the 8676 included patients (median age 2.4 years), antibiotics were prescribed in 3167 contacts (36.5%). Patient characteristics and alarm signs and/or symptoms positively related to antibiotic prescription were: increasing age (odds ratio [OR] = 1.03; 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 1.02 to 1.05), temperature measured by GP (OR = 1.72; 95% CI = 1.59 to 1.86), ill appearance (OR = 3.93; 95% CI = 2.85 to 5.42), being inconsolable (OR = 2.27; 95% CI = 1.58 to 3.22), shortness of breath (OR = 2.58; 95% CI = 1.88 to 3.56), duration of fever (OR = 1.31; 95% CI = 1.26 to 1.35). Negative associations were found for neurological signs (OR = 0.45; 95% CI = 0.27 to 0.76), signs of urinary tract infection (OR = 0.63; 95% CI = 0.49 to 0.82), and vomiting and diarrhoea (OR = 0.65; 95% CI = 0.57 to 0.74). These variables explained 19% of the antibiotic prescriptions.Conclusion Antibiotics are often prescribed for febrile children. These data suggest that treatment of a supposed serious bacterial infection is a consideration of GPs. However, the relatively low explained variation indicates that other considerations are also involved.