Health Literacy-Informed Communication to Reduce Discharge Medication Errors in Hospitalized Children: A Randomized Clinical Trial

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38227315/ Providing health literacy–informed tools and information to caregivers significantly reduced liquid medication dosing errors in children recently discharged from the hospital, according to an AHRQ-supported study in JAMA Network Open. Researchers tested a written, pictogram-based intervention that also included a dosing demonstration and structured teach-back and show-back methods with 151 caregivers in addition to standard counseling. They found that dosing errors dropped by half, from 54.2 percent in the standard counseling group to 30.4 percent in the intervention group. Researchers recommend that health literacy–informed communication tools be incorporated into the standard of care to facilitate safe pediatric hospital discharge to home