Abstract
Objective: 1) Understand epidemiologic antibiotic treatment patterns for acute otitis media (AOM). 2) Understand the potential impact of race and insurance status on the medical management of acute otitis media.
Method: Cases of isolated AOM in children.
Results: A total of 15.8 ± 1.5 million cases of AOM were studied (mean age, 3.6 years; 55.1% male). 15.0 ± 2.8% of children were Hispanic, and 10.4 ± 3.1% were black. Medicaid/SCHIP and private insurance covered 30.6 ± 4.4% and 69.4 ± 4.4% of children, respectively. Overall, 83.1 ± 2.2% of children received an antibiotic prescription. The most commonly prescribed antibiotics were amoxicillin (6.5 ± 0.9 million), beta-lactamase inhibitors (2.6 ± 0.4 million), and third-generation cephalosporins (2.3 ± 0.4 million prescriptions). On multivariate analysis, insurance status, ethnicity, race, age, and sex did not influence the likelihood of an antibiotic prescription during the visit (P = .884, P = .909, P = .849, P = .931, and P = .102, respectively).
Conclusion: The vast majority of children with acute otitis media are covered by health insurance. Ethnicity, race, and insurance type do not significantly influence antibiotic prescribing rates for AOM.
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