Study of antibiotic consumption using a novel unit among indoor pediatric patients in India

Unlike adult population, the Defined Daily Dose/100 Patient Days (DDD/100 PD) cannot be used as a standard unit in pediatric studies. In this study, we measured antibiotic consumption using standard unit's used- DDD/100 PD and DDD per 1000 Kilogram-Days (DDD/1000 Kg-D) and a novel unit- DDD/100 PD/ Mean Body Weight (DDD/100 PD/MBW). The study cohort was sub-divided into four sub-cohorts (n1=100, n2=100, n3=100, n4=92) with increasing mean body weight (in Kgs) of 6.21±1.46, 9.56±1.00, 13.84±1.59 and 22.94±5.18, respectively. The weight based sub-cohorts sought to explore the most suitable unit for the paediatric population. The Pearson correlation coefficient between DOT and DDD/100 PD, DDD/1000 Kg-D and DDD/100 PD/MBW, were -0.859, 0.981 and 0.975, respectively. Thus, DDD/100 PD/MBW is a novel unit in paediatric drug quantification independent of body weight and age.