US Emergency Department Visits for Acute Harms from Over-the-Counter Cough and Cold Medications, 2017-2019

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf
• Personal Author:
  Mital, Rohan ; Lovegrove, Maribeth C. ; Moro, Ruth N. ; Geller, Andrew I. ; Weidle, Nina J. ; Lind, Jennifer N. ; Budnitz, Daniel S.
• Description:
  Background and Purpose:
  
  Characterization of emergency department (ED) visits for acute harms related to use of over-the-counter cough and cold medications (CCMs) by patient demographics, intent of CCM use, concurrent substance use, and clinical manifestations can help guide prevention of medication harms.
  
  Methods:
  
  Public health surveillance data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System–Cooperative Adverse Drug Event Surveillance project were used to estimate numbers and population rates of ED visits from 2017-2019.
  
  Results:
  
  Based on 1,396 surveillance cases, there were an estimated 26,735 (95% CI, 21,679-31,791) US ED visits for CCM-related harms annually, accounting for 1.3% (95% CI, 1.2%-1.5%) of all ED visits for medication adverse events. Three fifths (61.4%, 95% CI, 55.6%-67.2%) of these visits were attributed to non-therapeutic CCM use (nonmedical use, self-harm, unsupervised pediatric exposures). Most visits by children aged <4 years (74.0%, 95% CI, 59.7%-88.3%) were for unsupervised CCM exposures. Proportion hospitalized was higher for visits for self-harm (76.5%, 95% CI, 68.9%-84.2%) than for visits for nonmedical use (30.3%, 95% CI, 21.1%-39.6%) and therapeutic use (8.8%, 95% CI, 5.9%-11.8%). Overall, estimated population rates of ED visits for CCM-related harms were higher for patients aged 12-34 years (16.5 per 100,000, 95% CI, 13.0-20.0) compared with patients aged <12 years (5.1 per 100,000, 95% CI, 3.6–6.5) and ≥35 years (4.3 per 100,000, 95% CI, 3.4-5.1). Concurrent use of other medications, illicit drugs, or alcohol was frequent in ED visits for nonmedical use (61.3%) and self-harm (75.9%).
  
  Conclusions:
  
  Continued national surveillance of CCM-related harms can assess progress toward safer use.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems Child Cough Drug-Related Side Effects And Adverse Reactions Emergency Service, Hospital Hospitalization Humans United States
• Keywords:
  Adverse Drug Event Cough And Cold Medication Medication Safety Nonmedical Drug Use Unsupervised Exposure
• Source:
  Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf. 31(2):225-234
• Pubmed ID:
  34757641
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC10917081
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  31
• Issue:
  2
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:9b6ef706825e403b74deaff6304e7bd624d2f8b1c5702bde0de34643eac699ca
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/151600/cdc_151600_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 281.21 KB ]