The purpose of this study was to evaluate the program for the control of acute respiratory infections(ARI) in children in a Korean rural area(Yonchon county). Evaluating the program, we focused on the pattern of prescription and appropriateness of antibiotics prescribed by the health personnel who had participated in the ARI Control Program. It was implemented at the primary health care setting in rural area, such as district hospital, health subcenters, and health posts. During six-months programme monitoring period, medical records were reviewed and collected data were analysed by the pediatrician, research coordinator of this study. The baseline data were collected from medical records of the same period(six months) of one year before the implementation of the ARI programme. @ES The study results were as follows : @EN
1. Common cold was the most prevalent disease(78.7%, 594 cases) among the all ARI cases (755 cases). The less frequent cases were bronchitis(11.9%), acute pharyngitis(5.2%), and pneumonia(1.8%).
2. Significant reduction in the use of antibiotics was observed after the programme implementation. Ninety three(15.7%) of 594 common cold cases were received antibiotics compared with 282(35.2%) of 802 in the baseline period. In the cases of bronchitis and acute pharyngitis, the reduction rates were 15.1% and 23.2% respectively compared to the baseline period.
3. Mean duration of antibiotics prescription was 1.81-1.75 days, similar to the baseline data.
4. The appropriateness rate of antibiotics prescriptions were 84.3%(common cold), 35.6% (bronchitis) and 28.2%(acute pharyngitis). In the case of pneumonia, the antibiotics prescription was compatible to the criteria developed.
5. Pediatrician prescribed antibiotics more appropriately for all cases than general practitioners in health sub-center, and nurse practitioners in health posts.
6. Antibiotics therapy was shown to be of no effect in the treatment of the all ARI cases. At the 5 and 10 days check-up of common cold cases after visits, proportion of improved patients were 59.3% in the antibiotics-used group and 51.4% in the
control group. In the other cases of ARI, the patterns of response were similar to common cold. None of the differences in outcome between the antibiotics-used and control group was statistically significant. This ARI programme may have a substantial impact on antibiotics use at the public health institutions(district hospital, health subcenters, health posts), which are of major domain for primary health care in Korean rural areas.
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