TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2012//
TI  - Acetaminophen overdose in the Military Health System
JO  - Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety
A1  - Taylor, Lockwood G.
A1  - Xie, Suji
A1  - Meyer, Tamra E.
A1  - Coster, Trinka S.
SP  - 375
EP  - 383
VL  - 21
IS  - 4
N2  - PURPOSE: We report the annual trend, distribution, and determinants of acetaminophen overdose using data from the Military Health System. We also assess the proportion of individuals with an acetaminophen overdose who received a prescription for any acetaminophen-containing medication prior to their event. METHODS: Diagnostic International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision (ICD-9) codes from inpatient medical encounters were used to identify patients with acetaminophen overdose. We used Poisson regression to estimate adjusted prevalence ratios (aPRs) for associations between selected socio-demographic characteristics and acetaminophen overdose. Pharmacy records for individuals with an acetaminophen overdose were obtained to evaluate the proportion who received a prescription for any acetaminophen-containing medication prior to their overdose. RESULTS: Annual age-adjusted and sex-adjusted prevalence of acetaminophen overdose increased by 38.5% from 2004 to 2008. Acetaminophen overdose was significantly more common in female subjects than in male subjects (aPR = 3.24, 95%CI = 2.97-3.55). Individuals aged 15-17 and 18-24 also were significantly more likely to have an overdose compared with those aged 45-64 (aPR = 6.06, 95%CI = 5.25-7.00 and aPR = 4.58, 95%CI = 4.01-5.23, respectively). Among active duty service members, acetaminophen overdose was six times more common in junior enlisted service members than in officers (aPR = 6.06, 95%CI = 3.90-9.40). The proportion of individuals with an inpatient overdose who had any prescription for an acetaminophen-containing medication in the 365, 30, and 7 days before the overdose was 53.3%, 23.7%, and 16.3%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Identification of at-risk populations will aid the military in ongoing efforts to decrease medication misuse. Findings suggest a potential need for improved labeling of over-the-counter medications and medication safety education efforts for unintentional acetaminophen overdose and continued efforts to identify individuals at risk for intentional overdose. Published 2012. This article is a US Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1053-8569
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pds.3206
ID  - ref1
ER  -