Out-of-Hospital Medication Errors Among Young Children in the United States, 2002–2012

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate out-of-hospital medication errors among young children in the United States. METHODS: Using data from the National Poison Database System, a retrospective analysis of out-of-hospital medication errors among children <6 years old from 2002 through 2012 was conducted. RESULTS: During 2002–2012, 696 937 children <6 years experienced out-of-hospital medication errors, averaging 63 358 episodes per year, or 1 child every 8 minutes. The average annual rate of medication errors was 26.42 per 10 000 population. Cough and cold medication errors decreased significantly, whereas the number (42.9% increase) and rate (37.2% increase) of all other medication errors rose significantly during the 11-year study period. The number and rate of medication error events decreased with increasing child age, with children <1 year accounting for 25.2% of episodes. Analgesics (25.2%) were most commonly involved in medication errors, followed by cough and cold preparations (24.6%). Ingestion accounted for 96.2% of events, and 27.0% of medication errors were attributed to inadvertently taking or being given medication twice. Most (93.5%) cases were managed outside of a health care facility; 4.4% were treated and released from a health care facility; 0.4% were admitted to a non–critical care unit; 0.3% were admitted to a critical care unit; and 25 children died. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first comprehensive study to evaluate the epidemiologic characteristics of out-of-hospital medication errors among children <6 years of age on a national level. Increased efforts are needed to prevent medication errors, especially those involving non–cough and cold preparations, among young children.

Carers' Medication Administration Errors in the Domiciliary Setting: A Systematic Review

“…Elsewhere, general medication error rates for young children were identified to be 26.42 per 10,000 population[9]. Other research further supports the findings that home MAEs are a significant issue.…”

“…Although this study did not report how many of these ADEs are caused by errors, indications from elsewhere are concerning, with 30% of 6,718 older home healthcare patients in the US found to have potential medication errors[8]. This is not a problem for the older generation alone; for US children under 6 years old, the average annual rate of medication errors has been reported to be 26.4 per 10,000 population[9]. Within the home setting, the scale of poor adherence to medication regimes by patients themselves is relatively well documented[10, 11].…”

Vaccination errors reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, (VAERS) United States, 2000–2013

“…Medication errors have been associated with a low incidence of AHEs in various settings [35][36][37]. In VAERS between 2000 and 2013, 25% of vaccination error reports documented an AHE.…”

Devices for oral and respiratory paediatric medicines: What do healthcare professionals think?

“…Medication administration errors, many of which are due to dosing errors, are common in paediatric patients, and may lead to adverse events (Ghaleb et al, 2010;Kaushal et al, 2001). Confusion with units of measure and administration of an incorrect amount have been reported with oral liquid medicines (Smith et al, 2014;Yin et al, 2014), and a large proportion of caregivers are unable to measure accurate doses (Yin et al, 2010a;Sobhani et al, 2008). Notwithstanding these observations, almost a tenth of participants believed it is not necessary to explain how to use an oral administration device.…”