Effects of Adverse Drug Reactions and Adverse Drug Events in Hospital Admission Rates and Re-Hospitalization of Patients

Background: ADRs and ADEs have a great potential to hospitalize and/or re-hospitalize patients. According to McDonnell and Jacobs, one ADR or ADE could lead a patient to a hospital length of stay of an average of 6.1 days. This can lead to lost days of work, a longer recovery time and even economic implications.

Methods: A thorough evaluation of the relevant extracted literature has been analyzed thoroughly in order to find out how ADRs and ADEs impact the levels of hospitalization and re-hospitalization of patients and whether strategies, such as reporting systems, can aide in decreasing their overall occurrence.

Results: As the level of hospital admissions/re-hospitalizations due to ADRs and ADEs depends on different factors, such as age and location, the data is separated in the following categories: pediatric population, general adult populations and geriatric population. Where data were available, location has been specified within each category as well. Conclusion: ADR and ADE-related hospital admission and readmission rates are age-group related, elderly being at the highest risk. However, these rates are not dependent on whether a country is developed or developing. Also, there are strategies that can be utilized by healthcare providers in order to decrease these rates in the future, such as to provide medication reviews and follow-ups.