gms | German Medical Science

24th Annual Meeting of the German Drug Utilisation Research Group (GAA)

Gesellschaft für Arzneimittelanwendungsforschung und Arzneimittelepidemiologie

30.11. - 01.12.2017, Erfurt

Incidence and management of adverse drug reactions in an outpatient setting – a cross-sectional analysis

Meeting Abstract

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Gesellschaft für Arzneimittelanwendungsforschung und Arzneimittelepidemiologie e.V. (GAA). 24. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Arzneimittelanwendungsforschung und Arzneimittelepidemiologie. Erfurt, 30.11.-01.12.2017. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2017. Doc17gaa91

doi: 10.3205/17gaa91, urn:nbn:de:0183-17gaa915

Published: December 5, 2017

© 2017 Haase et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.


Outline

Text

Background: Reliable data on frequency and nature of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and their consequences in outpatient settings are generally not available because of methodological problems.

The aim of this study was to evaluate frequency, management and coding quality of ADRs in outpatient settings.

Materials and Methods: Population based cross-sectional data from the German Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP-trend) cohort (n=4420) and matched billing data from the Association of Statutory Healthcare Physicians in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania (KV-MV). Data on ADRs were analyzed with regard to age and sex distribution, causative medication, symptoms and management. Coding quality was evaluated by comparison with KV-MV secondary data.

Results: 315 (10%, median age 60, range 21-83, 57% female) of subjects with documented medication (n=3090) reported having experienced ADRs during the prior 12 months. 353 medications (median 1, range 1-3) caused 462 ADRs (median 1, range 1-9). 22% of ADRs were attributable to cardiovascular medication and 12% to endocrine medications. Organ systems most frequently afflicted by ADRs were gastrointestinal tract (25%) and skin (19%). 287 (91%) of the subjects informed their physicians and 12 (4%) subjects needed inpatient treatment as a consequence of the ADRs. 27 (9%) of subjects were prescribed medication to treat the ADRs. “Complications of medication or illegal drugs” (ICD-10, T88.7) were encoded in 26 (8%) of subjects.

Conclusion: ADR occur frequently, with 10% of subjects taking medication in an outpatient setting reporting ADRs. Most ADRs were self-limiting and were reported to physicians. A small portion needed inpatient treatment. ADRs were rarely encoded and therefore the use of billing data to study their occurrence is of limited use. Reporting and coding of ADRs should be improved.


References

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