Children With Fever and Respiratory Symptoms at Out-of-hours Services in Norway

Children

C-reactive Protein, Primary Health Care, Child Welfare, After-Hours Care, Anti-Bacterial Agents, Drug Prescriptions

Viral self-limiting infections in respiratory organs among children are common in primary care. Serious infections have low prevalence and are challenging to distinguish from self-limiting infections. Prescription of antibiotics in primary care is still high but stable since 2009 in Norway, and 90% of all antibiotics are prescribed in primary care. C-reactive protein (CRP) has been especially popular in Norway for point-of-care testing in primary care, but its role in ruling-out serious infections and the cut-off value for prescribing antibiotics has been discussed a lot. The aim of this study is to identify if pretesting with CRP of all children 0-6 year with fever or respiratory symptoms at Out-of-Hours Services will affect the prescription of antibiotics and the referral to hospital for children.

Design: A randomized controlled observational study including children 0-6 year with fever and/or respiratory symptoms at 4 different Out-of-hour Services and at 1 Emergency Children Department Clinic at a hospital (open clinic). The data consist of clinical data and anamnestic information from a nurse at OOH-service collected before the consultation, the doctor's journal and a questionnaire to parents before the consultation and 1 week after the consultation.