FastStats: Medication Safety Data
- As adults get older, they often take more medicine, which increases their risk of an adverse drug event (ADE).
- An ADE is when a medication causes harm to someone. They are a serious public health threat.
- Finding and eating or drinking medicines without adult supervision is the main cause of emergency visits for ADEs among children aged 5 years and younger.
- ADEs are most commonly related to anticoagulants (blood thinners), diabetes agents (insulin), or antibiotics.
Importance
- More than 1.5 million people visit emergency departments for ADEs each year in the United States, and almost 500,000 require hospitalization.
- Older adults (65 years or older) visit emergency departments more than 600,000 times each year, more than twice as often as younger people.
- Understanding the key drivers of ADEs can help guide prevention.
- Leading causes of emergency department (ED) visits for ADEs
- Anticoagulants (approximately one in five, 21%)
- Diabetes agents such as insulin (almost one in seven, or 14%)
- Antibiotics (almost one in eight, or 13%)
