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 The number and rate of reported medication mistakes rose during the
11-year study, except for cough and cold medicines, the researchers
report in the journal Pediatrics.
The reduction in mistakes with cough and cold medicines follows a
multipronged campaign to decrease the use of these products among
young children, which suggests education is helpful in reducing
errors, Henry Spiller, one of the study’s authors, told Reuters
Health.
“We think that multipronged effort had an effect,” said Spiller,
director of the Central Ohio Poison Center at Nationwide Children’s
Hospital in Columbus. “We can see a drop associated with these
efforts.”
Medication errors can cause injury, increased healthcare spending
and even death, the researchers write.
Most studies have focused on medication mistakes in healthcare
facilities like hospitals. Less is known about mistakes that happen
with children’s medicine at home.
For the new study, the researchers used data on medication errors
reported among children younger than six years between 2002 through
2012. The data were obtained from the National Poison Database
System, which records information on calls made to the 55 U.S.
poison control hotlines.
On average, 63,358 children experienced medication errors during
each year of the study. Put another way, among every 10,000 young
children in the U.S., there were 27 medication errors each year.
While the vast majority of the cases did not require additional
medical attention, 25 children died during the 11 years as a result
of medication mistakes.
Over a quarter of the mistakes involved children being given the
same medication twice.
The most common mistakes involved pain medications like aspirin.
Next most common were mistakes with cough and cold medicines and
allergy medicines.
Medication errors became less common as children got older, the
researchers found. About a quarter of the mistakes occurred in
infants under age one year.
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Spiller said in a phone interview that parents and caregivers should
pause for a moment before they administer medications to their
children.
“This is when a lot of these medication errors occur - during these
distracted periods,” he said, adding that parents should make sure
they’re giving the correct medication, the appropriate dose, and not
giving a second dose.
“If you just take a moment, you can kind of save that mistake,” he
said.
Dr. Huiyun Xiang, the study’s senior author, said there is also a
lesson in the reduced number of mistakes among cough and cold
medicines following an education campaign.
“A similar case can be made against the routine use in young
children of other medications that are frequently associated with
errors, like analgesics,” he wrote in an email to Reuters Health.
“Parents and caregivers can do their parts by using smart phone apps
to schedule and track medication doses and by using measuring cups
provided with liquid medications to give accurate doses,” wrote
Xiang, of Nationwide Children’s Hospital, where he directs the
Center for Pediatric Trauma Research.
When medication mistakes do occur, Spiller said parents and
guardians should call their state’s poison center (1-800-222-1222).
“You’re going to get an expert immediately,” he said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/uFc4g2
Pediatrics, online October 20, 2014.
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