Prevalence and Severity of Drug Interactions in a Referral Pediatric Hospital: An Observational, Retrospective Study

Abstract

Background: Hospitalized infants and children are usually treated with many medications in the hospital. Concurrent use of multiple drugs, known as polypharmacy, is inevitable in critically ill patients. This study aims to investigate the possible interactions as well as their type and number, and their effect on the treatment process plus the duration of hospital stay of patients.
 Methods: In this descriptive study, the medical records of 189 patients admitted to the Intensive care unit (ICU) ward of Mofid Children's Educational Hospital in Tehran were prospectively studied over six months from August 2018 to March 2019. The collected data included disease diagnosis, patient medication information, age and gender, and treatment interventions. Interactions between drugs were identified using Up-to-date database, with the results analyzed by SPSS software.
 Results: The results revealed that hospitalization increased with an increasing number of drugs. The findings also indicated a direct relationship between the number of drug interactions and the duration of hospital stay. After examining the relationship between ICU outcome and the number of drug items as well as the number of drug interactions, it was found that there is a direct relationship between the two. There was also a direct relationship between Class D plus X interactions and mortality rate along with duration of stay.
 Conclusion: This study showed a direct relationship between drug interactions and the duration of hospitalization. In other words, as drug interactions increased, so did the duration of hospital stay.