BACKGROUND: Antibiotic resistance has been becoming serious challenge to human beings. Overuse of antibiotics, especially, for infants is concerned, but studies are very few for the prescribing pattern of antibiotic use for infants. This study analyzes prescribing patterns of antibiotics in outpatients of preschool children with acute respiratory tract infections in South Korea. METHODS: Data are used from 2011 Health Insurance Review & Assessment Services-pediatric patients sample. Inclusion criteria is outpatient children (0 to 5 years) with top five frequent diseases. Prescription rates are analyzed by types of disease, provider, specialty, region, and ages. Binary or multinomial logit models are used to analyze determinants of providers' prescription pattern. RESULTS: The main findings are as follows. First, distributions of prescription rates are shown as L-shape or M-shape depending on the types of disease. Second, the prescription variation is so large among providers, where providers are polarized as a group with low prescription rates and the other group with high prescription rates, though the shapes are shown diversified across types of disease. Third, prescription rates appear to be lower in pediatrics and higher in ENT (ear-nose-throat). Fourth, broad spectrum antibiotics are widely used among children. Finally, the logit analysis shows similar results with descriptive statistics, but partly different results across types of disease. CONCLUSION: Antibiotics for respiratory tract infections of infants are used excessively with a large variation among providers, and especially broad spectrum antibiotics are used. The prescription guideline for antibiotics should be provided for each specific disease to reduce antibiotic resistance in the future.
Anti-Bacterial Agents ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Drug Resistance, Microbial ; Humans ; Infant* ; Insurance, Health ; Korea ; Logistic Models ; Outpatients* ; Pediatrics ; Prescriptions* ; Respiratory System* ; Respiratory Tract Infections*

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of balance board training combined with tactile stimulation on the affected leg of hemiplegic patients in improving the ability of balance control. METHOD: Thirty hemiplegic patients participated. In the study group, two pieces of adhesive tapes were attached on the skin of affected lower leg. And then, they performed balance training on a balance board. The training was performed for 4 weeks. The control group received conventional gait training program for the same period. Subjects in both groups were tested for their balance control abilities using Balance Master before and after the training period. RESULTS: In the study group, there were statistically significant improvements in the abilities of the weight bearing, body sway control, and rhythmic weight shift (p<0.05) after balance board training. After the training, there were statistically significant differences in the abilities of weight bearing and rhythmic weight shift (p<0.05) between the two groups. CONCLUSION: The training with balance board combined with tactile stimulation to the affected leg and foot was proved to be effective for the treatment of balance control abilities in hemiplegic patients.
Adhesives ; Education ; Foot ; Gait ; Hemiplegia ; Humans ; Leg* ; Rehabilitation ; Skin ; Weight-Bearing