Background and objectives: Evidence-based practice guidelines for bronchiolitis management published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2006 recommend supportive care with limited diagnostic testing and treatment. We sought to determine the impact of these guidelines on the treatment of hospitalized children.
Methods: We analyzed data on inpatients with bronchiolitis aged 1 to 24 months from the Pediatric Health Information System, an administrative billing database, from November 1, 2004 to March 31, 2012. We compared trends in use of diagnostic and treatment resources before and after the publication of the guidelines by using segmented time series.
Results: A total of 41 pediatric hospitals contributed data to yield 130,262 patients; 58% were male, and 59% were publicly insured. Median age was 4.0 months (interquartile range, 2-9). Unadjusted analysis showed improvement in utilization rates before and after guidelines for diagnostic tests and for medications; however, there was no decreased use of antibiotics. A segmented regression analysis also demonstrated differences in rates of change before and after guidelines, with significant improvement for chest radiography, steroids, and bronchodilators (P < .0001).
Conclusions: In a nationally representative cohort of pediatric hospitals, publication of the 2006 American Academy of Pediatrics bronchiolitis guidelines was associated with significant reductions in the use of diagnostic and therapeutic resources.
Keywords: bronchiolitis; guidelines; resource utilization.