Pharmaceutical expenditure derived from antibiotic prescription to the pediatric population in Castilla y León in the last ten years

Introduction: the economic crisis and its consequences are posing difficulties for the sustainability of providing a pharmaceutical and health care system. Antibiotics are the therapeutic groups with the highest consumption in children.

Objective: description and analysis of the cost of prescribed antibiotics in the paediatric populationof Castilla and Leon in the last decade, in the community setting.

Methods: the databases of antimicrobials’ expenditure financed by the NHS come from Concylia. Consume indicators: Euro (€)/DDD and €/1000 inhabitants/day.

Results: there has been an antibiotic cost of € 15,750,829.26. Penicillins associated with beta lactamase inhibitors (amoxicillin with clavulanic acid) are responsible for 32.62% of spending, followedby cephalosporins and macrolides. In the last place are the broad-spectrum penicillins (amoxicillin),although they are the most prescribed antibiotics. The annual evolution reflects a sharp drop in the price of most antibiotics mainly during the last five years. Disaggregated analysis of spending by Health Areas also shows important differences.

Conclusions: variations in spending are driven primarily by the frequency of use and changes in retail prices. Amoxicillin clavulanate is the antibiotic responsible for the highest expense. Macrolides are the most expensive antibiotics and amoxicillin the lowest ones. There is a downward trend in spending in most antibiotics along the decade.