Frecuencia de errores de los pacientes con su medicación

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.