FastStats: Medication Safety Data

Used in 2 entries

For each citing entry, the verbatim excerpt and Likelier's calculation notes (how the source's number was converted to the lifetime-probability framing) are shown below. Click through to read the full claim ledger.

1. [1] Medication misuse Risk

   Statistic

   More than 1.5 million US ED visits per year for adverse drug events; almost 500,000 require hospitalisation; adults 65+ account for more than 600,000 ED visits

   “"More than 1.5 million people visit emergency departments for ADEs each year in the United States, and almost 500,000 require hospitalization. Older adults (65 years or older) visit emergency departments more than 600,000 times each year, more than twice as often as younger people."”

   Calculation notes

   CDC's aggregate ADE surveillance provides the contemporary US denominator. Of the ~1.5 million annual ED visits, a substantial fraction involve medication misuse (wrong dose, missed dose, drug interaction) rather than idiosyncratic reactions to correctly taken medications. The 500,000 hospitalisations/year figure is the basis for the non-fatal serious-harm estimate. Combined with the 125,000 deaths/year non-adherence figure, it implies roughly 375,000 hospitalisations/year result in recovery — consistent with the overall case-fatality rate in the ADE literature.
   

   Independence note: CDC FastStats is the authoritative US national surveillance estimate. It shares the NEISS-CADES platform with Budnitz et al. but reports a broader age range and more recent time window.

   Source date: 2024-05-01 · Accessed: 2026-04-18

2. [2] Medication reaction Risk

   Statistic

   ~1.5 million US ED visits per year for ADEs; ~500,000 require hospitalisation; >600,000 ED visits per year among adults 65+

   “"More than 1.5 million people visit emergency departments for ADEs each year in the United States, and almost 500,000 require hospitalization." "Older adults (65 years or older) visit emergency departments more than 600,000 times each year, more than twice as often as younger people."”

   Calculation notes

   CDC's ADE surveillance (built on the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System — Cooperative Adverse Drug Event Surveillance project, NEISS-CADES) gives the cleanest contemporary denominator for US serious ADRs: ~1.5M ED visits and ~500K hospitalisations per year. Likelier uses the 500K/year hospitalisation figure as the anchor for the "serious ADR lifetime risk ≈ 1 in 9" calculation in the body. The ~600K/year figure for adults 65+ is what drives the "age 75+ multiplier 5×" personal factor below.
   

   Independence note: Independent of Lazarou and Pirmohamed: CDC ADE surveillance is a US national ED sample (NEISS-CADES), not a hospitalised-inpatient cohort. It is the only one of the three sources whose numerator directly counts individual ADE events in the general population rather than extrapolating from a study sample.

   Source date: 2024-01-01 · Accessed: 2026-04-11

Also cited in these entries

HealthDirect

Medication misuse

What are the odds of being harmed by not reading drug labels or mixing medications?

1 in 35 lifetime(2.8%)

HealthDirect

Medication reaction

What are the odds of a serious adverse drug reaction from prescribed medication?

1 in 58 lifetime(1.7%)