The authors report on a preliminary analysis of an electronic database that includes more than 32 000 pediatric hospitalizations during 2000-2003. They analyzed pediatric inpatient medication use in a defined geographic area, the catchment area for the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, serving Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The study population included 18 108 female and 14 375 male children. The authors calculated the percentages of children receiving at least 1 administration of each drug. More than 700 drugs were received by children in the study population; 9 were received by at least 10% of all patients. The probability of receiving specific medications varied with patient age, sex, and race, but much further work is needed to quantify the variations. The database has the potential to inform pediatric health services research and pediatric comparative effectiveness research, and it may be the first analysis of hospitalizations for a pediatric population comprising all ages from 0 to 18.
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