Patient and medicine characteristics
| Characteristics | All patients (n=490) | Patients stratified by age (years) | |||
| 0–2 (n=176) | 3–5 (n=89) | 6–11 (n=130) | 12–15 (n=94) | ||
| Sex of patients | |||||
| Female | 172 (35)* | 66 (38) | 40 (45) | 44 (34) | 22 (23) |
| Male | 316 (65) | 110 (62) | 49 (55) | 85 (66) | 72 (77) |
| Missing data | 2 | 1 | |||
| Route of administration of medicines | |||||
| Oral | 449 (92) | 170 (97) | 81 (91) | 112 (86) | 85 (91) |
| Other ≤5% (topical, nasal, pulmonary, parenteral, rectal, auricular) | 41 (8) | 6 (3) | 8 (9) | 18 (14) | 9 (9) |
| Pharmaceutical dosage forms of medicines | |||||
| Syrup | 191 (39) | 90 (51) | 45 (51) | 48 (37) | 8 (9) |
| Tablet | 171 (35) | 36 (20) | 25 (28) | 41 (32) | 69 (73) |
| Oral suspension | 53 (11) | 26 (15) | 9 (10) | 16 (12) | 1 (1) |
| Other ≤5% (ointment, solution for nasal spray, drops for oral solution, granules, capsule, dispersible tablet, solution for inhalation, solution for injection, lotion, suspension for inhalation, suspension for spray, suppository ear solution) | 75 (15) | 24 (14) | 10 (11) | 25 (19) | 16 (17) |
| Therapeutic subgroups of medicines† | |||||
| Antiepileptics | 67 (14) | 14 (8) | 21 (24) | 19 (15) | 13 (14) |
| Antibacterials | 58 (12) | 15 (9) | 12 (13) | 23 (18) | 7 (7) |
| Analgesics | 55 (11) | 23 (13) | 10 (11) | 16 (12) | 6 (6) |
| Vitamins | 48 (10) | 32 (18) | 3 (3) | 7 (5) | 6 (6) |
| Antivirals | 28 (6) | 16 (9) | 9 (10) | 2 (2) | 1 (1) |
| Other ≤5% (acid-related disorders, psycholeptics, mineral supplements, antidiarrheals, antianemic preparations, nasal preparations, cough and cold preparations, other nervous system drugs, diuretics, functional gastrointestinal disorders, antimycobacterials, antihistamines, antiemetics and antinauseants…) | 234 (47) | 76 (43) | 34 (39) | 63 (48) | 61 (66) |
*n (%): number and percentages.
†The second level of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification system, controlled by the WHO Collaborating Centre for Drug Statistics Methodology.