Distribution, Consequences, and Determinants of Time to Antibiotics in Children With Community-Onset Severe Bacterial Infection: A Secondary Analysis of a Prospective Population-Based Study.

Objectives: To describe the distribution, consequences and potential determinants of time to antibiotics administration in children with community-onset severe bacterial infections (COSBIs).

Design: Secondary analysis of the available data from a prospective population-based study from 2009 to 2014.

Setting: An administrative area in western France accounting for 13% of the national pediatric population.

Patients: All children from 1 month to 16 years old admitted to a PICU or who died before admission and had a COSBI.

Interventions: None.

Measurements And Main Results: The time to antibiotics was divided into patient interval (from first signs of COSBI to the first medical consultation) and medical interval (from the first consultation to appropriate antibiotics administration). The association between the medical interval and child outcome was studied by a multinomial logistic regression model and the potential determinants of the patient and medical intervals were by a Cox proportional-hazards model. Of the 227 children included (median age 2.1 yr), 22 died (9.7%), and 21 (9.3%) had severe sequelae at PICU discharge. Median patient and medical intervals were 7.0 hours (interquartile range [IQR], 2.0-16.5 hr) and 3.3 hours (IQR, 1.1-12.2 hr), respectively. The last quartile of medical interval was not associated with death (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 3.7; 95% CI, 0.8-17.5) or survival with severe sequelae (aOR, 1.3; 95% CI, 0.4-4.0) versus survival without severe sequelae. Patient interval was shorter in younger children (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 0.95; 95% CI, 0.92-0.99), and medical interval was reduced when the first consultation was conducted in a hospital (aHR, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.1-2.0) versus outpatient medicine.

Conclusions: For children with COSBI, we found no significant association between medical interval and mortality or severe sequelae. An initial hospital referral could help reduce the time to antibiotics in COSBIs.