Factors Associated With Drug-Related Emergency Department Visit: A Systematic Review

Ab Fatah, Ab Rahman and Myat Moe Thwe, Aung and Abubakar Ibrahim, Jatau (2016) Factors Associated With Drug-Related Emergency Department Visit: A Systematic Review. Journal of Public Health Medicine, 16 (3). pp. 134-146. ISSN 675–0306

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Abstract

Drug-related hospitalization has been identified as a significant contributor to mortality, morbidity and increase in healthcare cost. This systematic review examines the factors associated with drug-related emergency department (ED) visit to better understand the factors, including the common drugs involved and people at high risk of drug-related ED visits. Relevant articles published from January 2000 to September 2015 were identified from PubMed and from a manual search of a reference list of articles. A total of 30 studies were reviewed based on the inclusion criteria. From this review, drug-related ED visit was found to be multifactorial. Many factors such as; old age, female gender, ethnicity, being socially disconnected, low health practice index, polypharmacy, comorbidity, drugs with narrow therapeutic index, drug use in management of chronic illness, drug abuse, drug intoxication, self-medication, presence of chronic illness, long-term care residents, consulting multiple prescribers and pharmacies were found to be associated with drug-related ED visit. The classes of drugs most frequently implicated were cardiovascular agents, central nervous systems (CNS) agents, anticoagulants, antimicrobials, antidiabetics, NSAIDS, antiasthmatics, corticosteroids, chemotherapeutic agents and aphrodisiacs. Preventive measures to improve patient safety should be focused towards the identified factors and the frequently implicated drugs.

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