The impact of prescriber experience and continuity on adverse drug reactions in hospitalized cancer patients

Abstract

Cancer patients suffer severely from bodily damage due to malignant neoplasms and live a life of low quality, while the occurrence of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) worsens these conditions. Risk factors associated with ADRs have been long discussed in the literature, yet few studies considered prescriber-related risks. This study filled the gap by examining the ADR risk of prescriber-related factors from two dimensions: prescriber experience and prescriber continuity. We conducted a logistic regression analysis to investigate the effects. The data for analysis contained 34,474 inpatient admissions linked to 2,750,685 medication orders. We found that both experienced prescriber and prescriber continuity are related to lower ADR risk. Our results also revealed that the involvement of more experienced physicians in the prescribing process could mitigate the harmful effects of prescriber non-continuity on ADRs.

Keywords:

• Cancer inpatients
• adverse drug reactions
• healthcare continuity
• physician experience

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 71921001 and 71771202.