Parents have their children vaccinated against measles, whooping cough and the like more often than they did a few years ago. This is shown by an evaluation of children who are insured with TK.
Berlin – More and more small children receive all 13 vaccinations recommended by the Standing Vaccination Commission by their second birthday. This is shown by a current report by Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), which, however, only contains data from children insured there.
According to this, 51.9 percent of the children born in the first half of 2019 were vaccinated against diseases such as measles, rubella and whooping cough within the first two years. At that time, only 46.7 percent of those born in 2016 had received all vaccinations.
At the same time, the rate of completely unvaccinated children is declining. While 3.5 percent of the TK-insured persons born in 2016 did not receive a single vaccination in the first two years of their lives, the figure for the children born in the first half of 2019 was only 2.8 percent.
Less medication prescribed
The TK report also identifies a significant decline in drug prescriptions. In 2020, doctors prescribed almost 40 percent fewer medications for children under the age of 12 with TK insurance than in 2019. For example, prescriptions for pain and fever-reducing active ingredients such as ibuprofen and paracetamol have fallen sharply. Before the pandemic, 45 percent of children were prescribed such a drug at least once a year, in the first year of the pandemic it was only 29 percent.
The use of antibiotics also fell: In the first year of the pandemic, for example, children were 64 percent less likely to be prescribed the antibiotic drug amoxicillin. “That doesn’t surprise us,” says Jens Baas, CEO of TK. In the pandemic, many typical childhood diseases have also decreased due to the corona protective measures.
However, the rarer drug prescriptions are not solely linked to Covid-19. TK has been recognizing a slightly declining trend in its data for several years.
The situation is different when it comes to psychotropic drugs: more and more children and young people are being given medication to treat mental illnesses. In 2020, 2.6 percent of TK policyholders between the ages of 6 and 11 were prescribed such a drug – that’s a slight increase of 0.3 percentage points. In the same period, the rate among 12 to 17 year olds rose from 3.5 percent to 4.3 percent.
Doctors most frequently prescribed antidepressants and ADHD medication for children and adolescents. According to the TK report, there are major differences between girls and boys. Boys are about three times more likely to be prescribed medication for ADHD, while girls are more than 2.5 times more likely to be prescribed an antidepressant. dpa
