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Preterm birth and prescriptions for cardiovascular, antiseizure, antibiotics and antiasthmatic medication in children up to 10 years of age: a population-based data linkage cohort study across six European regions

Damkjær, M; Loane, M; Urhoj, SK; Ballardini, E; Cavero-Carbonell, C; Coi, A; García-Villodre, L; Given, JE; Gissler, M; Heino, A; et al. Damkjær, M; Loane, M; Urhoj, SK; Ballardini, E; Cavero-Carbonell, C; Coi, A; García-Villodre, L; Given, JE; Gissler, M; Heino, A; Jordan, S; Neville, AJ; Pierini, A; Tan, J; Scanlon, I; Garne, E; Morris, JK (2022) Preterm birth and prescriptions for cardiovascular, antiseizure, antibiotics and antiasthmatic medication in children up to 10 years of age: a population-based data linkage cohort study across six European regions. BMJ Open, 12 (10). e061746. ISSN 2044-6055 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061746
SGUL Authors: Morris, Joan Katherine Tan, Joachim Wei Li

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Abstract

Objectives Preterm children are exposed to many medications in neonatal intensive care units, but little is known about the effect of prematurity on medication use throughout infancy and childhood. We examined prescriptions of cardiovascular medication (CVM), antiseizure medication (ASM), antiasthmatic medication and antibiotics issued/dispensed in the first 10 years of life for very and moderately preterm children compared with term. Design Population-based data linkage cohort study linking information from birth records to prescription records. Setting Six registries from five countries in the EUROlinkCAT study. Participants The study population included 1 722 912 children, of whom 10 820 (0.6%) were very preterm (<32 weeks gestational age (GA)), 92 814 (5.4%) were moderately preterm (32–36 weeks GA), 1 606 643 (93.3%) were born at term (≥37 weeks GA) and 0.7% had missing GA. Children with major or minor congenital anomalies were excluded (including patent ductus arteriosus). Main outcome measures Relative risk (RR) of receiving a prescription for CVM, ASM, antiasthmatic and antibiotics. Results Very preterm children had a higher RR of receiving a prescription for CVM and ASM than preterm children. For all preterm children, the RR of having a CVM prescription was 3.58 (95% CI 2.06 to 6.23); 2.06 (95% CI 1.73 to 2.41) for ASM; 1.13 (95% CI 0.99 to 1.29) for antiasthmatics and 0.96 (95% CI 0.93 to 0.99) for antibiotics in the first year of life. Increased prescription of CVM, ASM and antiasthmatics persisted for all 10 years of follow-up. Although the RR was highest for CVM and ASM, in absolute numbers more children received prescriptions for antibiotics (42.34%, 95% CI 38.81% to 45.91%) and antiasthmatics (28.40%, 95% CI 16.07% to 42.649%) than for CVM (0.18%, 95% CI 0.12% to 0.25%) and ASM (0.16%, 95% CI 0.13% to 0.20%) in the first year of life. Conclusion Preterm children had a higher risk of being prescribed/dispensed CVM, ASM and antiasthmatics up to age 10. This study highlights a need for further research into morbidity beyond age 10.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
Keywords: 1103 Clinical Sciences, 1117 Public Health and Health Services, 1199 Other Medical and Health Sciences
SGUL Research Institute / Research Centre: Academic Structure > Population Health Research Institute (INPH)
Journal or Publication Title: BMJ Open
ISSN: 2044-6055
Dates:
DateEvent
17 October 2022Published
2 October 2022Accepted
Publisher License: Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0
Projects:
Project IDFunderFunder ID
733001European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programmeUNSPECIFIED
URI: https://openaccess.sgul.ac.uk/id/eprint/114885
Publisher's version: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061746

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