Short-Course vs Long-Course Antibiotic Therapy for Children With Nonsevere Community-Acquired Pneumonia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Short-course antibiotic therapy could enhance adherence and reduce adverse drug effects and costs. However, based on sparse evidence, most guidelines recommend a longer course of antibiotics for nonsevere childhood community-acquired pneumonia (CAP).

Objective

To determine whether a shorter course of antibiotics was noninferior to a longer course for childhood nonsevere CAP.

Data sources

MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, and 3 Chinese databases from inception to March 31, 2022, as well as clinical trial registries and Google.com.

Study selection

Randomized clinical trials comparing a shorter- vs longer-course therapy using the same oral antibiotic for children with nonsevere CAP were included.

Data extraction and synthesis

SUBMITTER: Li Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9664370 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature