The study, led by Alexander Glick, MD, of NYU School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City, analyzed other studies published between 1985 and 2016. The majority of the analyzed studies took place in the U.S., but some researched foreign nations.
In the review, Dr. Glick and researchers uncovered instances where parents gave children at least 20 percent more or less medication than prescribed occurred 42 percent to 48 percent of the time, Reuters reports. Most dosing errors occurred when parents measured liquid medication. In addition to dosing issues, up to 42 percent of parents did not understand how often to give their children prescribed medication.
The study also found up to 62 percent of parents did not attend follow-up appointments after their child’s discharge from an inpatient hospital visit. For emergency visits, up to 81 percent of parents missed follow-up appointments, according to the report.
Researchers noted the study review is limited to data excluding children discharged from hospitals on evenings and weekends. How often parents misunderstood instructions could have been underestimated, authors said.
“When children miss follow-up appointments, they lose the opportunity for additional monitoring, and physicians also cannot ensure that parents are following instructions correctly,” Dr. Glick told Reuters. “Misunderstanding discharge instructions has the potential to lead to unnecessary and unanticipated readmissions and visits to the emergency department.”
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