title: [Frequency of medication errors by patients].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Analyze the frequency of medication errors committed and reported by patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Descriptive study based on a telephone survey of a random sample of adult patients from the primary care level of the Spanish public health care system. A total of 1 247 patients responded (75% response rate); 63% were women and 29% were older than 70 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  While 37 patients (3%, 95% CI: 2-4) experienced complications associated with medication in the course of treatment, 241 (19.4%, 95% CI: 17-21) reported having made some mistake with their medication. A shorter consultation time (P < 0.01) and a worse assessment of the information provided by the physician (P < 0.01) were associated with the fact that during pharmacy dispensing the patient was told that the prescribed treatment was not appropriate.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In addition to the known risks of an adverse event due to a health intervention resulting from a system or practitioner error, there are risks associated with patient errors in the self-administration of medication. Patients who were unsatisfied with the information provided by the physician reported a greater number of errors.
authors.affiliation: Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, Elche, España. jose.mira@umh.es
authors.forename: José Joaquín
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Mira
authors.forename: Isabel Maria
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Navarro
authors.forename: Mercedes
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guilabert
authors.forename: Jesús
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Aranaz
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012646:Self Administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012651:Self Medication; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires