Appropriateness of proton pump inhibitors use in noncritically ill hospitalized children in a tertiary hospital in Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: Studies assessing the appropriate use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) for hospitalized noncritically ill pediatric patients are lacking. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the suitability of PPI prescriptions in noncritically ill pediatric patients. METHODS: This cross sectional retrospective study was conducted at a maternity hospital in Qassim, Saudi Arabia from November 2020 to January 2021. All noncritically ill hospitalized children aged 14 years and below who received PPIs were included. The endpoints included the number and percentage of patients who appropriately received PPIs in general and in each age category. The collected data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel (version 2208, Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA). RESULTS: In total, 332 medical records were screened, of which 246 were included. Of all patients, 49.2% were children and 50.8% were infants, with the average age at admission being 5.39 ± 5.4 years years. More than half of the patients were female, and the average weight of patients was 19.8 kg. Omeprazole was appropriately used in 95 (38.5%) patients. Based on age groups, omeprazole was appropriately used in 66.3% of children and 38.4% of infants. CONCLUSION: The use of omeprazole in noncritically ill pediatrics was only deemed appropriate in 38.6% of the study population. This result indicates that this medication was overused in the institution. Additional research is required to confirm this on a nationwide scale.