Practice Variation in Acute Bronchiolitis: A Pediatric Emergency Research Networks Study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Studies characterizing hospitalizations in bronchiolitis did not identify patients receiving evidence-based supportive therapies (EBSTs). We aimed to evaluate intersite and internetwork variation in receipt of ≥1 EBSTs during the hospital management of infants diagnosed with bronchiolitis in 38 emergency departments of pediatric emergency research networks in Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal. We hypothesized that there would be significant variation, adjusted for patient characteristics. METHODS: Retrospective cohort study of previously healthy infants aged <12 months with bronchiolitis. Our primary outcome was that hospitalization occurred with EBST (ie, parenteral fluids, oxygen, or airway support). RESULTS: Out of 3725 participants, 1466 (39%) were hospitalized, and 1023 out of 1466 participants (69.8%) received EBST. The use of EBST varied by site (P < .001; range 6%–99%, median 23%), but not by network (P = .2). Significant multivariable predictors and their odds ratios (ORs) were as follows: age (0.9), oxygen saturation (1.3), apnea (3.4), dehydration (3.2), nasal flaring and/or grunting (2.4), poor feeding (2.1), chest retractions (1.9), and respiratory rate (1.2). The use of pharmacotherapy and radiography varied by network and site (P < .001), with respective intersite ranges 2% to 79% and 1.6% to 81%. Compared with Australia and New Zealand, the multivariable OR for the use of pharmacotherapy in Spain and Portugal was 22.7 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.5–111), use in Canada was 11.5 (95% CI: 3.7–36), use in the United States was 6.8 (95% CI: 2.3–19.8), and use in the United Kingdom was 1.4 (95% CI: 0.4–4.2). Compared with United Kingdom, OR for radiography use in the United States was 4.9 (95% CI 2.0–12.2), use in Canada was 4.9 (95% CI 1.9–12.6), use in Spain and Portugal was 2.4 (95% CI 0.6–9.8), and use in Australia and New Zealand was 1.8 (95% CI 0.7–4.7). CONCLUSIONS: More than 30% of infants hospitalized with bronchiolitis received no EBST. The hospital site was a source of variation in all study outcomes, and the network also predicted the use of pharmacotherapy and radiography.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.003 | 0.011 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".