Antiasthmatic prescriptions in children with and without congenital anomalies: a population-based study.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the risk of being prescribed/dispensed medications for respiratory symptoms and breathing difficulties in children with and without congenital anomalies. DESIGN: A EUROlinkCAT population-based data linkage cohort study. Data on children with and without congenital anomalies were linked to prescription databases to identify children who did/did not receive antiasthmatic prescriptions. Data were analysed by age, European region, class of antiasthmatic, anomaly, sex, gestational age and birth cohort. SETTING: Children born 2000-2014 in six regions within five European countries. PARTICIPANTS: 60 662 children with congenital anomalies and 1 722 912 reference children up to age 10 years. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURE: Relative risks (RR) of >1 antiasthmatic prescription in a year, identified using Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification codes beginning with R03. RESULTS: There were significant differences in the prescribing of antiasthmatics in the six regions. Children with congenital anomalies had a significantly higher risk of being prescribed antiasthmatics (RR 1.41, 95% CI 1.35 to 1.48) compared with reference children. The increased risk was consistent across all regions and all age groups. Children with congenital anomalies were more likely to be prescribed beta-2 agonists (RR 1.71, 95% CI 1.60 to 1.83) and inhaled corticosteroids (RR 1.74, 95% CI 1.61 to 1.87). Children with oesophageal atresia, genetic syndromes and chromosomal anomalies had over twice the risk of being prescribed antiasthmatics compared with reference children. Children with congenital anomalies born <32 weeks gestational age were over twice as likely to be prescribed antiasthmatics than those born at term (RR 2.20, 95% CI 2.10 to 2.30). CONCLUSION: This study documents the additional burden of respiratory symptoms and breathing difficulties for children with congenital anomalies, particularly those born preterm, compared with children without congenital anomalies in the first 10 years of life. These findings are beneficial to clinicians and healthcare providers as they identify children with greater morbidity associated with respiratory symptoms, as indicated by antiasthmatic prescriptions.

Preterm birth and prescriptions for cardiovascular, antiseizure, antibiotics and antiasthmatic medication in children up to 10 years of age: a population-based data linkage cohort study across six European regions.

OBJECTIVES: Preterm children are exposed to many medications in neonatal intensive care units, but little is known about the effect of prematurity on medication use throughout infancy and childhood. We examined prescriptions of cardiovascular medication (CVM), antiseizure medication (ASM), antiasthmatic medication and antibiotics issued/dispensed in the first 10 years of life for very and moderately preterm children compared with term. DESIGN: Population-based data linkage cohort study linking information from birth records to prescription records. SETTING: Six registries from five countries in the EUROlinkCAT study. PARTICIPANTS: The study population included 1 722 912 children, of whom 10 820 (0.6%) were very preterm (<32 weeks gestational age (GA)), 92 814 (5.4%) were moderately preterm (32-36 weeks GA), 1 606 643 (93.3%) were born at term (≥37 weeks GA) and 0.7% had missing GA. Children with major or minor congenital anomalies were excluded (including patent ductus arteriosus). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Relative risk (RR) of receiving a prescription for CVM, ASM, antiasthmatic and antibiotics. RESULTS: Very preterm children had a higher RR of receiving a prescription for CVM and ASM than preterm children. For all preterm children, the RR of having a CVM prescription was 3.58 (95% CI 2.06 to 6.23); 2.06 (95% CI 1.73 to 2.41) for ASM; 1.13 (95% CI 0.99 to 1.29) for antiasthmatics and 0.96 (95% CI 0.93 to 0.99) for antibiotics in the first year of life. Increased prescription of CVM, ASM and antiasthmatics persisted for all 10 years of follow-up. Although the RR was highest for CVM and ASM, in absolute numbers more children received prescriptions for antibiotics (42.34%, 95% CI 38.81% to 45.91%) and antiasthmatics (28.40%, 95% CI 16.07% to 42.649%) than for CVM (0.18%, 95% CI 0.12% to 0.25%) and ASM (0.16%, 95% CI 0.13% to 0.20%) in the first year of life. CONCLUSION: Preterm children had a higher risk of being prescribed/dispensed CVM, ASM and antiasthmatics up to age 10. This study highlights a need for further research into morbidity beyond age 10.

Prescription of cardiovascular medication in children with congenital heart defects across six European Regions from 2000 to 2014: data from the EUROlinkCAT population-based cohort study.

OBJECTIVES: Advances in surgical management strategies have substantially reduced fatality from congenital heart defects (CHD). Decreased infant mortality might be expected, consequentially to result in greater morbidity in older children due to complications later in childhood and adolescence. This study aims to evaluate the use of cardiovascular medication (CVM) as an indicator of disease burden in children born with CHD in the first 10 years of life. DESIGN: Population-based cohort study. SETTING: Six population-based registries from the European Surveillance of Congenital Anomalies (EUROCAT) network participated. Data from live born children with major congenital anomalies (CA) born from 2000 to 2014 were linked to prescription databases. Four groups of children were analysed: CA, CHD, severe CHD (sCHD) and ventricular septal defect (VSD) without sCHD. Live born children without CA were included as reference group. PARTICIPANTS: We obtained data on 61 038 children born with a CA, including 19 678 with CHD, 3392 with sCHD, 12 728 children with VSD without sCHD, and 1 725 496 reference children. RESULTS: Children born with sCHD were the most likely to receive a CVM prescription (42.9%, 95% CI, 26.3 to 58.5) in the first year of life compared with 13.3% (6.7 to 22.0) of children with any CHD, 5.9% (3.7 to 8.7) of children with any CA and 0.1% (0.0 to 0.1) of reference children. Medication was less likely to be prescribed after the first year of life for sCHD; 18.8% (14.8 to 23.1) for children 1-4 years and 15.8% (12.0 to 20.1) 5-9 years. Children with sCHD were most likely to receive a diuretic (36.4%, 18.6 to 54.5), an antihypertensive (6.9%, 3.7 to 11.3) or a beta-blocker (5.5%, 2.9 to9.2). CONCLUSION: Almost half of all children with sCHD were prescribed CVM in their first year of life. For all four groups of children with anomalies, the proportion of children with a CVM prescription decreased with age.

EUROlinkCAT protocol for a European population-based data linkage study investigating the survival, morbidity and education of children with congenital anomalies.

INTRODUCTION: Congenital anomalies (CAs) are a major cause of infant mortality, childhood morbidity and long-term disability. Over 130 000 children born in Europe every year will have a CA. This paper describes the EUROlinkCAT study, which is investigating the health and educational outcomes of children with CAs for the first 10 years of their lives. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: EUROCAT is a European network of population-based registries for the epidemiological surveillance of CAs. EUROlinkCAT is using the EUROCAT infrastructure to support 22 EUROCAT registries in 14 countries to link their data on births with CAs to mortality, hospital discharge, prescription and educational databases. Once linked, each registry transforms their case data into a common data model (CDM) format and they are then supplied with common STATA syntax scripts to analyse their data. The resulting aggregate tables and analysis results are submitted to a central results repository (CRR) and meta-analyses are performed to summarise the results across all registries. The CRR currently contains data on 155 594 children with a CA followed up to age 10 from a population of 6 million births from 1995 to 2014. ETHICS: The CA registries have the required ethics permissions for routine surveillance and transmission of anonymised data to the EUROCAT central database. Each registry is responsible for applying for and obtaining additional ethics and other permissions required for their participation in EUROlinkCAT. DISSEMINATION: The CDM and associated documentation, including linkage and standardisation procedures, will be available post-EUROlinkCAT thus facilitating future local, national and European-level analyses to improve healthcare. Recommendations to improve the accuracy of routinely collected data will be made.Findings will provide evidence to inform parents, health professionals, public health authorities and national treatment guidelines to optimise diagnosis, prevention and treatment for these children with a view to reducing health inequalities in Europe.