Provider-ordered viral testing and antibiotic administration practices among children with acute respiratory infections across healthcare settings in Nashville, Tennessee

Antimicrob Steward Healthc Epidemiol. 2024 Mar 6;4(1):e29. doi: 10.1017/ash.2024.24. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Objective: Evaluate the association between provider-ordered viral testing and antibiotic treatment practices among children discharged from an ED or hospitalized with an acute respiratory infection (ARI).

Design: Active, prospective ARI surveillance study from November 2017 to February 2020.

Setting: Pediatric hospital and emergency department in Nashville, Tennessee.

Participants: Children 30 days to 17 years old seeking medical care for fever and/or respiratory symptoms.

Methods: Antibiotics prescribed during the child's ED visit or administered during hospitalization were categorized into (1) None administered; (2) Narrow-spectrum; and (3) Broad-spectrum. Setting-specific models were built using unconditional polytomous logistic regression with robust sandwich estimators to estimate the adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals between provider-ordered viral testing (ie, tested versus not tested) and viral test result (ie, positive test versus not tested and negative test versus not tested) and three-level antibiotic administration.

Results: 4,107 children were enrolled and tested, of which 2,616 (64%) were seen in the ED and 1,491 (36%) were hospitalized. In the ED, children who received a provider-ordered viral test had 25% decreased odds (aOR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.54, 0.98) of receiving a narrow-spectrum antibiotic during their visit than those without testing. In the inpatient setting, children with a negative provider-ordered viral test had 57% increased odds (aOR: 1.57; 95% CI: 1.01, 2.44) of being administered a broad-spectrum antibiotic compared to children without testing.

Conclusions: In our study, the impact of provider-ordered viral testing on antibiotic practices differed by setting. Additional studies evaluating the influence of viral testing on antibiotic stewardship and antibiotic prescribing practices are needed.