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Improper use of antibiotics persists as flu season starts

Cold and flu season is getting underway, and you can bet some worried parents will be asking doctors to give their children antibiotics - despite the fact that these drugs, as we're told time and time again, do not work against viral illnesses.

Cold and flu season is getting underway, and you can bet some worried parents will be asking doctors to give their children antibiotics - despite the fact that these drugs, as we're told time and time again, do not work against viral illnesses.

A new Drexel University study takes a closer look at which patients are most likely to get antibiotics inappropriately.

In a group of 20,581 Wisconsin patients with upper respiratory infections, researchers found adolescents were more likely to get antibiotics, as compared with children ages 3 months to 4 years.

Study authors speculated this phenomenon may be due to the fact that older children are better able to articulate their symptoms.

The study, in Annals of Family Medicine, also found that white children were nearly twice as likely as African American children to be prescribed antibiotics inappropriately for these infections, consistent with previous studies.

One positive sign: Overall, 6.5 percent of the children were prescribed antibiotics, a lower rate than in some previous studies.

The lead author was Jeffrey P. Yaeger, who is affiliated with Drexel and with St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. The senior author was Ana P. Martinez-Donate of Drexel's Dornsife School of Public Health.

- Tom Avril