Decreasing Medication Errors by Caregivers Using a Health Literacy Intervention

April 23, 2015 updated by: Columbia University
Giving medications to children can be confusing; studies have shown that caregivers make dosing administration errors up to 50% of the time. There are many reasons that there are so many errors, including the fact that dosing for children is based on their weight, liquid medications come in many different forms, and caregivers often give medicines using kitchen teaspoons and tablespoons. Caregivers who have difficulty reading have even more difficulty understanding medication instructions. We are developing and testing a web-based educational module to teach caregivers how to give medications. We are focusing on the pediatric emergency department because we know that this population has low literacy levels, and that many antibiotics are prescribed in this setting. We anticipate that those caregivers that view the interactive module will have increased knowledge on how to give medications once they get home.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Terminated

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

Dosing error rates of home administration of medications to children have been reported to be as high as 50%. Contributing to this error rate are the complexity of pediatric weight-based dosing, confusing formulations of liquid medications, and a reliance on non-standardized dosing tools such as kitchen teaspoons and tablespoons to administer medications. Families with low health literacy are at particular risk for medication administration errors. Health literacy promoting interventions to improve medication administration such as dissemination of a pictogram-based medication list have been shown to work for common over-the-counter medications such as acetaminophen, but their effect on administration practices for common medications prescribed in the pediatric emergency department (PED) has not been evaluated. Of the 50,000 patients seen in the PED each year, approximately 85% of patients are discharged with a prescription for medication. This makes the PED an ideal setting to implement a health literacy intervention to reduce medication administration errors at home. The investigators are proposing to conduct a randomized controlled trial of an educational module focused on how to administer antibiotics at home and test whether there is an improvement in care practices.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
132

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • New York
      • New York, New York, United States, 10032
        • Columbia University Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

2 months to 8 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Caregivers of:

  • Patients aged 2 months to 8 years
  • Patients triaged to Emergency Severity Index (ESI) level 4 or 5 in the pediatric emergency department.
  • Patients with at least one prescription for a liquid, tablet or ointment antibiotic.

Exclusion Criteria:

Caregivers of:

  • Patients in need of immediate care.
  • Patients hospitalized.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: Fever assessment and management
Medication administration educational module for low literacy subjects on how to administer common medications appropriately and safely.
Other: Medication administration educational module
The Research Assistant (RA) will enter the subject's language (English or Spanish), the type of medicine (tablet/capsule, liquid, or ointment) from the antibiotic prescription, and the frequency (once a day, twice a day, three times a day, four times a day) from the antibiotic prescription into the web-based educational module on medication administration so that a tailored module will be setup for the subject. The subject will then view the educational interactive module. After the subject is done with the module, the RA will administer a verbal post-test. The post-test will include questions on medication administration as well as questions on fever assessment and management.
Other Names:
  • Health Literacy Intervention

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Score on the telephone interview post-test
Time Frame: 48-72 hours post Emergency Department visit
Subject scores will be dichotomized in the follow way: anything less than 100% will be considered incorrect, a score of 100% will be considered correct.
48-72 hours post Emergency Department visit

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Prevalence of perfect performance on each element of the questionnaire
Time Frame: 48-72 hours post Emergency Department visit
Each answer on the telephone interview post-test will be dichotomized into a correct/incorrect answer.
48-72 hours post Emergency Department visit

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Columbia University

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Anupama Subramony, MD, MBA, Columbia University

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
February 1, 2011

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
January 1, 2013

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
January 1, 2013

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
February 4, 2011

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
February 10, 2011

First Posted (Estimate)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
February 11, 2011

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
April 24, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
April 23, 2015

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
April 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • AAAI0786

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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