TY - JOUR T1 - Does early diagnosis and treatment of the childhood asthma reduce excessive antibiotics usage? JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 42 IS - Suppl 57 SP - P1153 AU - Ahmet Hakan Gedik AU - Erkan Cakir AU - Emin Ozkaya AU - Mustafa Nursoy Y1 - 2013/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/42/Suppl_57/P1153.abstract N2 - Introduction: Despite the fact that asthmatic patients present with transient airway obstruction or respiratory distress episodes, they are usually diagnosed the upper or lower respiratory tract infections and often use antibiotics.Aim: To compare the number of asthma episodes and the frequency of antibiotic usage before and after treatment in patients who were diagnosed with asthma and given treatment.Method: The patients over 2 years-old who were diagnosed with asthma and followed for at least one year in our clinic were included. The frequency of asthma episodes and antibiotics usage in one year before diagnosis and one year after treatment was compared.Results: Sixty one percent of the patients were male and the total number was 151. The mean age was 83±41 months, their diagnosis age was 55±39 months. 64% of the patients was still attending in school or day-care centre. Smoking in house was 43% of the patients. There was atopy and asthma family history in 65% of patients. While the mean number of asthma episodes before diagnosis of asthma was 5,3±5,1, it was detected that the mean number of asthma episodes decreased to 1,1±2 in one year after treatment (p<0,01). While the patients were using 7,4±4,4 antibiotics in one year before diagnosis of asthma, it was determined that the mean number of antibiotics was 2,1±2,4 one year after treatment (p<0,01).Conclusion: Our study determined that the early diagnosis and treatment of childhood asthma reduces significantly the number of episodes and the frequency of antibiotics usage. ER -