Table 2.

Blood samples per paediatric patient

Age group	Number of blood samples				Statistical analysis (overall p value)
	1976–1985 Median [IQR] (range)	1986–1995 Median [IQR] (range)	1996–2005 Median [IQR] (range)	2006–2015 Median [IQR] (range)
Neonates	6 [5–7] (1–8)	7 [6–9]* (1–14)	4 [3–7]* (1–11)	5 [3–7] (2–14)	0.047
Infants	6.5 [5–7] (2–9)	9 [6–11] (4–27)	8 [5–12] (3–12)	6 [4–8] (4–10)	0.261
Children	7 [5–9]Î (4–20)	9 [8–12]Ά (4–18)	8 [7–10] (2–19)	7 [5–9]† (2–20)	<0.001
Adolescents	5	8 [7–9] (7–9)	9 [8–10] (8–10)	6 [4–9] (2–11)	0.300
Mixed age	8 [5–12] (5–18)	9 [6–12] (2–15)	8 [6–10] (1–16)	7 [6–9] (2–15)	0.229
Total	7 [5–8]‡ (1–20)	9 [6–11]‡xƒ (1–27)	8 [6–10]x (1–19)	7 [5–9]ƒ (2–20)	<0.001

Only these pairs were significant: *(p=0.043), Î(p=0.039), †(p=<0.001), ‡(p=0.013), x(p=0.044) and ƒ(p=<0.001).