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Archivos de Pediatría del Uruguay

Print version ISSN 0004-0584On-line version ISSN 1688-1249

Abstract

ZUNINO, Carlos et al. Level of awareness of pediatric off-line drug prescription. Arch. Pediatr. Urug. [online]. 2019, vol.90, n.4, pp.195-202.  Epub Aug 01, 2019. ISSN 0004-0584.  https://doi.org/10.31134/ap.90.4.2.

Off-label drug prescription involves prescribing drugs under different conditions from those described in packaging labels or inserts or to those under which they were originally authorized or registered. In Uruguay, we do not know the level of pediatricians’ awareness about this issue.

Objective:

to find out the level of awareness that pediatricians and pediatrics’ postgraduate students have regarding off-label prescriptions.

Materials and methods:

anonymous survey to pediatricians and pediatrics’ postgraduate students from the Pereira Rossell Children Hospital, Médica Uruguaya and Asociación Española HMOs. We asked them about their understanding about the term off-label, its definition and habitual prescription practices. We selected five frequently prescribed drugs in order to research about their use outside the package insert.

Results:

we surveyed 63 professionals, 34 postgraduates and 29 pediatricians. 25 of them (40%) stated that they were aware of the term off-label, thought 10 of them did not know what the term meant. 18 respondents identified off-label use of adrenaline, 17 of domperidone, 13 of loratadine, 8 of omeprazole and 8 of ondansetron.

Conclusions:

most of the respondents did not have enough awareness or knowledge regarding off-label practices, which can lead to prescription problems.

Keywords : Off label use; Pharmaceutical preparations; Prescriptions; Pediatrics.

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