not a few people who drink liquid medicine such as cough or cold medicines using tablespoon or teaspoon. Use the spoon to eat it increases the risk of drug dosing errors.
“As you know many people who find alternative means to take medication, one with a spoon to eat. This practice is very risky increasing dose errors can be dangerous,” said Koert van Ittersum, assistant professor at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, as quoted from HealthDay, Thursday (7/1/2010).
Van Ittersum explained that it is equal to the size of the plates that affect how many people are eating. This means the device used can have an effect on the drug dose given.
The results of research conducted by van Ittersum and colleagues have been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Watchdog Food and Drug Administration United States (FDA) has given a warning not to use a spoon to measure any liquid medicine.
In this study, researchers involved 195 students who visited health clinics around the university. Each student was asked to pour 5 ml of cough medicine with gauges, then students were asked to repeat by pouring medicine into a spoon.
Students are asked to menungkan drug into a teaspoon and spoon the larger the spoon to eat. In this case also seen the level of confidence of the students in the pouring drugs. Apparently found in varying doses of each person and also depends on the size of the spoon.
Obtained when using a teaspoon dose error of more than 8 per cent and if you use a bigger spoon like a tablespoon dose errors almost 12 percent.
Consumed liquid medicine such as cough or cold medicines with an incorrect dose can affect health. If excessive doses are used and in the long term is likely to provide real consequences as a side effect of the drug itself. Risks will be greater if it occurs again in children.
“Situations like this make the biggest enemy is ourselves. We recommend using gauges that were supposed to be used in order to measure accurately, and avoid over-dose,” says van Ittersum.
