Table 1.
Characteristics of included systematic reviews
| Study | Population | Studies (patients) | Countries (world bank criteria) | Diagnostic criteria | Antibiotic regimen | Definition of clinical resolutionb | Overall quality of included studies within reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Falagas, 2008(a) | Children and young adults ≤25 years old with group A strep tonsillopharyngitis | 7 (1410)a | Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, USA (high income) | Clinical criteria, or Clinical criteria + culture or serology or rapid antigen | Same antibiotic, same daily dose | Complete or substantial resolution of symptoms and signs at end-of- therapy evaluation | Moderate |
| Haider, 2011 | Children 2–59 months old with non-severe community acquired pneumonia | 4 (6177) | India, Pakistan, Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh (lower-middle income) | Clinical criteria | Same antibiotic, same daily dose | Respiratory rate returned to normal | Moderate/good |
| Kozyrskyj, 2010 | Children 3 months to 14 years old with acute otitis media (AOM) | 49 (12045) | Bulgaria, Canada, Costa Rica, Chile, China, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Finland, France, Greece, Guatemala, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Mexico, Peru, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, USA (lower-middle, upper-middle, and high income) | Clinical criteria | Same antibiotics (12); different (37) | Treatment failure, including lack of clinical resolution, relapse or recurrence of AOM over 1 month follow up. | Low |
| Michael, 2010 | Children 3 months to 18 years old with urinary tract infection | 10 (652) | Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, Hungary, Kuwait, Sweden, USA (upper-middle and high income) | Urine culture | Same antibiotic, same daily dosage | Persistent bacteriuria at the end of treatment | Low |
| Falagas, 2008(b) | Adults with acute bacterial sinusitis | 12 (4430) | Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, South Africa (upper- middle and high income) | Clinical criteria | Same antibiotic, same daily dosage | Complete resolution, or improvement of symptoms and signs at the test of cure visit | Moderate/good |
| Katchman, 2005 | Adult 16–65 years old non-pregnant women with uncomplicated urinary tract infection | 32 (9605) | Denmark, France, Israel, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA (upper-middle and high income) | Clinical criteria + culture | Same antibiotic, same daily dosage (15); same antibiotic, different daily dosage (3); different antibiotics (14); | Persistence or recurrence of symptoms within 2 weeks follow-up | Moderate |
| Kyriakidou, 2008 | Adults ≥15 years old with acute pyelonephritis | 2 (185)c | The Netherlands, Sweden, USA (high income) | Clinical criteria + culture | Same antibiotic, same daily dosage | Resolution of symptoms and signs at test of cure visit | Moderate |
| Li, 2007 | Adults ≥12 years old with mild to moderate community acquired pneumonia | 8 (1540)d | Canada, Croatia, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, Spain, USA (upper-middle and high income) | Clinical criteria + radiology | Different antibiotics | Failure to achieve clinical improvement or cure; based on clinical symptoms and need for additional antibiotics | Moderate/good |
| Lutters, 2008 | Older women (>60 years) with acute uncomplicated lower tract urinary tract infection | 6 (431) | Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands (high income) | Clinical criteria + culture | Same antibiotic (2), same daily dosage (2) | Persistence of symptoms | Moderate |
aOnly studies of individuals up to 25 years of age were included in the review, total review included 11 studies and 2750 patients.
bSecondary outcome definitions can be found in Supplementary Table 3.
cTwo additional studies were included in systematic review that compared IV antibiotics, therefore, they were excluded in our analyses.
dSeven studies were included in the systematic review that compared IV antibiotics, therefore, they were excluded in our analyses.