@article{ref1,
title="Out-of-hospital medication errors among young children in the United States, 2002-2012",
journal="Pediatrics",
year="2014",
author="Smith, Maxwell D. and Spiller, Henry A. and Casavant, Marcel J. and Chounthirath, Thiphalak and Brophy, Todd J. and Xiang, Huiyun",
volume="134",
number="5",
pages="867-876",
abstract="OBJECTIVE: To investigate out-of-hospital medication errors among young children in the United States. <br><br>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. <br><br>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. <br><br>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.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0031-4005",
doi="10.1542/peds.2014-0309",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1542/peds.2014-0309"
}