A new study has revealed that the large decline in emergency room visits by children who consumed household medicine unsupervised shows that parents are more careful now in keeping medicines away from children, NY City News reports.
The study was published in the journal Pediatrics.
Researchers from the federal Centers Disease Control and Prevention conducted the study and considered the countrywide representative data from 2004 through 2013. The data contained emergency room visits of children aged 6 or younger for bad reactions of drugs.
The data was obtained from a government surveillance system.
The most common prescription drugs that were taken by children when unsupervised group included opioids, anti-addiction drug buprenorphine, painkillers, anti-anxiety medicines and sedatives.
The researchers found that there were approximately 640,000 ER visits between the years 2004 and 2013 in which young children were involved who had swallowed medicine unsupervised. In comparison, there were nearly 623,000 ER visits that involved medicine given to children by parents or other caretakers.
The study found that after 2010, the ER visits for unsupervised medicine taken by children fell each following year, to nearly 60,000 visits in 2013. This shows that parents are now more cautious than earlier in keeping household medicines away from the reach of children.
