title: Effectiveness of pediatric pill swallowing interventions: a systematic review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Pediatric patients commonly have difficulty swallowing pills. Targeted interventions have shown to improve medication administration and treatment compliance. The objective was to evaluate studies performed on pill swallowing interventions in the pediatric population since 1987.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a comprehensive PubMed search and a bibliography review to identify articles for our review. We selected articles published in English between December 1986 and December 2013 that included >10 participants aged 0 to 21 years with pill swallowing difficulties without a comorbid condition affecting their swallowing. Reviewers extracted the relevant information and rated the quality of each study as "poor," "fair," or "good" based on the sample size and study design.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We identified 4 cohort studies and 1 case series that met our criteria. All 5 studies found their intervention to be successful in teaching children how to swallow pills. Interventions included behavioral therapies, flavored throat spray, verbal instructions, specialized pill cup, and head posture training. Quality ratings differed between the articles, with 3 articles rated as "fair," 1 article as "good," and 1 article as "poor."
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pill swallowing difficulties are a barrier that can be overcome with a variety of successful interventions. Addressing this problem and researching more effective ways of implementing these interventions can help improve medication administration and compliance in the pediatric population.
authors.affiliation: University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; University of North Carolina School of Public Health, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and.
authors.forename: Amee
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.affiliation: Divisions of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine and.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jacobsen
authors.affiliation: Infectious Diseases, North Carolina Children's Hospital, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Ravi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jhaveri
authors.affiliation: Divisions of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine and kbradfor@med.unc.edu.
authors.forename: Kathleen K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Bradford
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003679:Deglutition; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D013607:Tablets; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D013607:Tablets