title: 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.
authors.affiliation: Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio;
authors.forename: Maxwell D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Central Ohio Poison Center, Columbus, Ohio; and The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio.
authors.forename: Henry A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Spiller
authors.affiliation: Central Ohio Poison Center, Columbus, Ohio; and The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio.
authors.forename: Marcel J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Casavant
authors.affiliation: Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio;
authors.forename: Thiphalak
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chounthirath
authors.affiliation: Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio; The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio.
authors.forename: Todd J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Brophy
authors.affiliation: Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio; The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio huiyun.xiang@nationwidechildrens.org.
authors.forename: Huiyun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xiang
mesh_terms: D016907:Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems / Q000639:trends*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000639:trends*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: NPDS; ingestion; medication error; poison control center; poisoning