Introduction:

Adverse drug events are more frequent in children, so we sought to establish the related factors in hospitalized infants.

Objective:

To describe the factors related to adverse drug events in hospitalized children.

Methods:

A descriptive analytical research developed in four Colombian health institutions from January 2014 to June 2018 included 160 children as the sample, ages ranged between one month and 14 years. They had 224 adverse drug events. Variables of the child and the care environment were studied, through medical records; Rho Spearman was used for statistical analysis.

Results:

45.00% of the infants were under one year of age; 33.13% consulted for respiratory conditions, 16.52% had allergies that showed an association with the events (rs =. 185; p = 0.006); 53.13% had previous hospitalizations (rs = .145; p = 0.003); 23.75% had between two and 4 errors and 62.50% had chemical phlebitis. There was a relationship between the number of catheters and adverse drug events (rs = .132; p = 0.049), 91.07% were mild and 84.38% preventable. Beta-lactams were responsible for 19.64% of the cases causing prolongation of hospitalization in 5.80%. The failures were lack of permeabilization of the venous access (76.78%), incorrect dilution (74.11%), incorrect medication (4.91%), incorrect dose (1.76%) and incorrect route (1.34 %).

Conclusions:

The reason for consultation is a predictor of the severity of the adverse drug event; allergies and previous hospitalizations had weak association. In the environment, it is necessary to monitor the use of antivirals. It is necessary to improve the safe handling of drugs by the nursing staff.

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