Race and Antibiotic Use for Children Hospitalized With Acute Respiratory Infections

We sought to evaluate whether children hospitalized with acute respiratory infections experienced differences in antibiotic use by race and ethnicity. We found that likelihood of broad-spectrum antibiotic receipt differed across racial and ethnic groups. Future work should confirm this finding, evaluate causes, and ensure equitable antibiotic use. In this single-center evaluation of children hospitalized with acute respiratory infections, we found that children from different racial and ethnic groups were equally likely to receive systemic antibiotics; likelihood of receiving broad-spectrum antibiotics differed across groups.