At least one in every four children and one fifth of teachers had a problem telling medicines from candy in a new study carried out by two seventh-grade students. Casey Gittelman and Eleanor Bishop presented their study at the American Academy of Pediatrics National conference Exhibition, Boston, Mass. They had tested people`s ability to distinguish
drugs from candy at Ayer Elementary School, Cincinnati, Ohio.
The seventh-graders` study was called
"Candy or Medicine: Can Children Tell the Difference?"The
Drug and Poison Information Center, Cincinnati Children`s Hospital
Medical Center, allowed Gittelman and Bishop to take one of their medicine cabinets for their experiment. The cabinet contained a combination of 20 different medications and candies.
Thirty teachers and thirty children were randomly selected to tell them which items were candies. A significant number of the kindergarten children did not know how to read.
The researchers also asked the participants how they stored their medications at home. The volunteers were also asked questions about their daily medicine usage.
The children were 71% accurate in telling the candy from the medication, while the teachers` had an accuracy rate of 78%.
Gittelman and Bishop explained that they observed a higher error rate among the children who could not read.
Below is a list of the most common mistakes among both teachers and children:M&Ms for Coricidin - 43%SweeTARTS for Mylanta - 53%Reese`s Pieces for Sine-off - 50%SweeTARTS for Tums - 53%Bishop said:
"(The candy) most frequently mistaken were circular objects, those similar in color and shine, and those with no distinguishable markings," said Bishop. In addition, 78 percent of the 60 students and teachers in the study said medicines in their homes were not locked and out-of-reach.
We found that neither teachers nor students store their medicines appropriately at home.
Gittelman said:
Interventions to educate families about safe storage of medicines, and manufacturing medicines to have distinguishable appearances may help to reduce unintentional ingestions of medications.
Written by Christian Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today
