[Clinical safety paediatric patients]

Abstract

Objective: To describe the incidence and types of adverse events in children and how they can be prevented.

Material and methods: Analysis of paediatric hospitalisations in the ENEAS Study, the Asturias Study on hospitalisation -related adverse events (EAPAS) and the Aragon Study of the Adverse Effects related to the hospitalisation, which involved a retrospective medical record review of a population-based, representative sample of all paediatric hospital discharges. Adverse events were defined as an injury caused by medical management, rather than by disease processes.

Results: We were able to identify 24 paediatric patients suffering 29 AEs directly associated with medical care. Compared to non-elderly adult patients, infants and adolescents suffered lower rates of adverse events. Of these, 65.5% (19 AE) were considered as preventable. Adverse events occurred in 3.61% of paediatric hospitalisations. Adverse events rates were 3.8% in infants (0-1.5 years), 4.0% in children 1.5-6 years of age, and 2.6% in children 7-16 years of age, compared with a rate of 6.4% in non-elderly adults. Medication related (37.9%) events were the most common types of adverse event.

Conclusions: The epidemiology of adverse events in children is different to that in adults. To reduce the adverse events that occur in hospitalized children, knowledge of AE epidemiology in paediatric patients will help in the development of prevention strategies to avoid or to minimise them.