PARENTS CAN DOSE LIQUID MEDICATION ACCURATELY

Objective. To determine whether parental errors in dosing liquid medic ation can be decreased through education. Design. Randomized convenien ce sample stratified to three study groups. Setting. General pediatric clinic, largely indigent and Latino. Patients. A total of 45 English- speaking and 45 Spanish-speaking children diagnosed with otitis media and treated with an antibiotic suspension. Intervention. Group 1 patie nts received the prescription and verbal instructions. Group 2 patient s received the prescription and a syringe, then the correct dose was d emonstrated. Group 3 patients received the prescription, a syringe wit h a line marked at the correct dose, and a demonstration. After return ing from the pharmacy, parents administered the medication under obser vation. Parents in group 1 used a dispensing device similar to that pl anned for home use. The other groups used the syringe. After observati on but before discharge, everyone received a syringe with a line marke d at the correct dose. Patients were seen again at similar to 1 month, and parents demonstrated how much medication they had administered. M ain Outcome Measure. Percent of parents who administered the correct d ose. Results. Patients in group 1 received between 32% and 147% of the correct dose, with only 11 of 30 (37%) receiving the correct dose (+/ -0.2 mL). In group 2, 25 of 30 (83%) parents administered the correct dose, and in group 3, 30 of 30 (100%) gave the correct dose. Simultane ous logistic regression indicated that accuracy of dosage differed acr oss instructional groups and language. At follow-up, 23 of 26 parents demonstrated the correct dose. Conclusion. Education can decrease medi cation dosing errors made by both Spanish-speaking and English-speakin g parents. Effectiveness was also shown at follow-up.