Use of antibiotics and prescription drugs in general during the first 9 years of life in a Swedish community

The use of antibiotic drugs and of prescription drugs in general during the first 9 years of life was studied among all 1701 children born in a Swedish municipality. Cumulative proportions of children who had received one or more prescriptions for any type of drug and for different groups of antibiotic drugs were estimated by life-table methods. The effects on drug use of the gender and the birth order of the child along with the age, citizenship and marital status of the mother were analysed by Cox's proportional hazards regression model. Half of the children had received at least one prescription for any drug after 0.6 years and at least one prescription for any antibiotic drug after 1.8 years. Higher proportions of children with prescriptions for all drugs and for all antibiotic drugs were found among males than females, among those with older siblings compared with first-borns and among children of younger mothers compared with those of older mothers.