%0 Journal Article %T Frecuencia de errores de los pacientes con su medicaci¨®n %A Mira %A Jos¨¦ Joaqu¨ªn %A Navarro %A Isabel Maria %A Guilabert %A Mercedes %A Aranaz %A Jes¨²s %J Revista Panamericana de Salud P¨²blica %D 2012 %I Organizaci¨®n Panamericana de la Salud %R 10.1590/S1020-49892012000200001 %X objective: analyze the frequency of medication errors committed and reported by patients. methods: descriptive study based on a telephone survey of a random sample of adult patients from the primary care level of the spanish public health care system. a total of 1 247 patients responded (75% response rate); 63% were women and 29% were older than 70 years. results: while 37 patients (3%, 95% ci: 2-4) experienced complications associated with medication in the course of treatment, 241 (19.4%, 95% ci: 17-21) reported having made some mistake with their medication. a shorter consultation time (p < 0.01) and a worse assessment of the information provided by the physician (p < 0.01) were associated with the fact that during pharmacy dispensing the patient was told that the prescribed treatment was not appropriate. conclusions: in addition to the known risks of an adverse event due to a health intervention resulting from a system or practitioner error, there are risks associated with patient errors in the self-administration of medication. patients who were unsatisfied with the information provided by the physician reported a greater number of errors. %K medication errors %K medication adherence %K patient participation %K physician-patient relations %K primary health care %K spain. %U http://www.scielosp.org/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S1020-49892012000200001&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en