Antibiotic Use in Children with Acute Respiratory or Ear Infections: Prospective Observational Comparison of Anthroposophic and Conventional Treatment under Routine Primary Care Conditions

Table 5

Comparison other studies: study characteristics.

Study	Land	Design		Age years	Diagnoses/subgroups	Reference
This study	AT, DE, NL, UK,  US	POCS	529	0–17	Sore throat/ear pain/Cough
Abbas et al., 2010	DE	RDA	21,564	2–17	Respiratory infection/nonsupportive OM/supportive OM	[75]
Ashe et al., 2006	US	POCS	720	0.5–12	Symptoms of respiratory illness or OM	[76]
Ashworth et al., 2006	UK	RDA	>100,000	1–16	Sore throat/ear infection/tracheitis or bronchitis	[77]
Chung et al., 2007	UK	POCS	119	0.5–12	Suspected respiratory infection or OM	[78]
Coco et al., 2010	US	POCS	1,114	0.5–12	OM	[79]
Harnden et al., 2007	UK	POCS	425	0.5–12	Cough and fever, “more than a simple cold,” physician considered prescribing antibiotics	[80]
Meropol et al., 2009	UK	RDA	>400,000	1–17	Nonspecific respiratory infection (excluding OM and sinusitis)	[7]
Plasschaert et al., 2006	NL	RDA	>8,000	0–13	OM	[2]
Uijen et al., 2011	NL	RDA	>50,000	0–17	Tonsillitis/OM	[81]
van Deursen et al., 2012	NL	RDA	>5,000	2–17	Respiratory infection	[8]
Zuckerman et al., 2007	US	RDA	20,213	0–5	Upper respiratory tract infection	[82]

OM: otitis media. POCS: prospective observational cohort study. RDA: retrospective database analysis.