Table 5.
Relative prevalence of off-label systemic drug orders by drug class and age for children in US ambulatory settings (2006–2015)
| Percentage of orders that were off-label (95% confidence intervals) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drug class1 | Age <1m | Age 1m-<2y | Age 2–5y | Age 6–11y | Age 12–17y | All children |
| Anti-infectives | 86.32 (57.2, 96.7) | 33.9 (30.6, 37.2) | 33.2 (31.0, 35.5) | 36.9 (34.1, 39.7) | 43.6 (40.5, 46.8) | 36.9 (35.2, 38.6) |
| Respiratory | 1002 (ND) | 85.2 (80.9, 88.7) | 41.0 (37.6, 44.5) | 36.7 (33.5, 40.1) | 40.8 (37.7, 44.0) | 44.3 (42.3, 46.4) |
| Nervous | 50.52 (24.1, 76.6) | 11.4 (7.3, 17.4) | 19.3 (16.0, 23.1) | 31.2 (28.6, 34.0) | 49.2 (46.8, 51.6) | 35.2 (33.3, 37.2) |
| Alimentary | 98.8 (91.5, 99.8) | 72.9 (67.3, 77.8) | 84.1 (78.6, 88.5) | 73.8 (67.7, 79.1) | 52.9 (46.0, 59.7) | 70.0 (65.9, 73.7) |
| Hormonal | ND2 | 64.9 (56.7, 72.2) | 47.4 (40.6, 54.3) | 34.7 (28.6, 41.4) | 36.1 (28.2, 44.9) | 43.5 (39.5, 47.6) |
| Cardiovascular | 1002 (ND) | 11.12 (8.3, 14.8) | 5.7 (3.7, 8.7) | 6.2 (4.6, 8.5) | 11.0 (8.8, 13.6) | 8.7 (7.4, 10.1) |
| Musculoskeletal | 2.72 (0.1, 35.6) | 42.5 (24.1, 63.3) | 86.1 (69.5, 94.4) | 30.9 (23.4, 39.5) | 38.7 (30.3, 47.7) | 39.0 (32.8, 45.6) |
| Genitourinary | ND2 | 1002 (ND) | 86.52 (41.7, 98.3) | 42.52 (19.2, 69.7) | 68.8 (61.9, 74.9) | 67.7 (61.3, 73.5) |
ND not defined
1
Drug class according to Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical level 1 classification
2
Values based on <30 observations