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Use of a pictographic diagram to decrease parent dosing errors with infant acetaminophen: a health literacy

H Shonna Yin1, Alan L Mendelsohn, Arthur Fierman

  • 1Department of Pediatrics, New York University School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital Center, New York, NY 10016, USA. yinh02@med.nyu.edu

Academic Pediatrics
|January 29, 2011
PubMed

Insights

Pictographic dosing diagrams significantly improved infant acetaminophen dosing accuracy for parents, particularly those with low health literacy. This visual aid reduced medication errors, enhancing child safety.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric pharmacology
  • Health communication
  • Patient education

Background:

  • Medication dosing errors by parents are a common issue.
  • Accurate dosing is crucial for infant medication efficacy and safety.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate if pictographic dosing diagrams improve parent accuracy in dosing infant acetaminophen.
  • To determine if the benefit of pictograms varies by parental health literacy.

Main Methods:

  • An experimental study randomized parents to text-only or text-plus-pictogram acetaminophen dosing instructions.
  • Dosing accuracy was the primary outcome, with errors defined as >20% deviation.
  • Parental health literacy was assessed using the Newest Vital Sign measure.

Main Results:

  • Parents using text-plus-pictogram instructions had lower dosing error rates (43.9%) compared to text-only (59.0%).
  • Pictograms significantly reduced large overdosing errors (0.6% vs 5.6%).
  • The benefit of pictograms was most pronounced in parents with low health literacy.

Conclusions:

  • Pictographic dosing diagrams can enhance medication dosing accuracy for parents, especially those with limited health literacy.
  • Despite improvements, high error rates persist, indicating a need for further research into optimal dosing strategies.
Abstract

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