THE DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF AN ADVERSE DRUG EVENT RISK PROFILE FOR HOSPITALIZED PATIENTS TAKING CARDIOVASCULAR DRUGS (DRUGS).
Contributors: University of Mississippi.
Published: 1990
Number of pages: 198
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Pharmacy.; Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery.
Description: The purpose of this study was to develop a risk profile which could be used to identify hospitalized patients taking cardiovascular drugs who are at risk for developing an adverse drug event (ADE). From a review of the literature, the risk profile variables were identified as age, sex, race, history of allergic condition, history of previous ADE, renal disease, liver disease, number of different drugs taken during hospitalization, and the concomitant use of one or more cardiovascular drugs.

The medical records of 427 patients randomly selected from patients with the Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) classification of cardiovascular disease were reviewed for information pertaining to the identified risk profile characteristics and evidence of ADEs. The sample was examined and patients were excluded to provide a parsimonious group of 391 cases for analysis. Discriminant Analysis was used to evaluate the risk profile variable's ability to discriminate hospitalized patients taking cardiovascular drugs who had experienced an ADE from hospitalized patients taking cardiovascular drugs who had not experienced an ADE. The overall "hit-ratio" exceeded that expected by the proportional chance criterion, but did not meet the 25% rule proposed by Hair et al. (1987). Therefore it was determined that the discriminant function could not be considered a valid predictor of patients experiencing an ADE.

Odds ratios were determined for each of the risk profile variables to measure the strength of the association between the presence of the risk factor and the development of an ADE. The variables found to be significantly related to the likelihood of an ADE were renal disease, number of drugs taken during hospitalization, and number of cardiovascular drug entries. Renal disease was associated with the greatest (U.S times) increased risk of an ADE. As the number of drugs increased, so did the risk of an ADE. An increase in cardiovascular drug entries showed a similar pattern. From these results, it was concluded that the odds ratios which were significant could provide a clinically effective tool for signaling hospitalized patients at risk for developing an ADE.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-06, Section: B, page: 2821.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI, 1990.

School code: 0131.