RESEARCH ARTICLE Atopic children and use of prescribed medication: A comprehensive study in general practice David H. J. Pols1*, Mark M. J. Nielen2, Arthur M. Bohnen1, Joke C. Korevaar2, Patrick J. E. Bindels1 1 Department of General Practice, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 2 NIVEL, Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research, Utrecht, The Netherlands a1111111111 *
[email protected] a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 Abstract a1111111111 Purpose A comprehensive and representative nationwide general practice database was explored to study associations between atopic disorders and prescribed medication in children. OPEN ACCESS Citation: Pols DHJ, Nielen MMJ, Bohnen AM, Korevaar JC, Bindels PJE (2017) Atopic children Method and use of prescribed medication: A All children aged 0±18 years listed in the NIVEL Primary Care Database in 2014 were comprehensive study in general practice. PLoS ONE 12(8): e0182664. https://doi.org/10.1371/ selected. Atopic children with atopic eczema, asthma and allergic rhinitis (AR) were journal.pone.0182664 matched with controls (not diagnosed with any of these disorders) within the same general Editor: Anthony Peter Sampson, University of practice on age and gender. Logistic regression analyses were performed to study the differ- Southampton School of Medicine, UNITED ences in prescribed medication between both groups by calculating odds ratios (OR); 93 dif- KINGDOM ferent medication groups were studied. Received: March 24, 2017 Accepted: July 13, 2017 Results Published: August 24, 2017 A total of 45,964 children with at least one atopic disorder were identified and matched with Copyright: © 2017 Pols et al. This is an open controls. Disorder-specific prescriptions seem to reflect evidence-based medicine guide- access article distributed under the terms of the lines for atopic eczema, asthma and AR.