Effectiveness and infant acceptance of the Rx medibottle versus the oral syringe. Pharmacotherapy. [Pharmacotherapy] Journal article

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To compare the effectiveness and infant acceptance of drug delivery of the Rx medibottle with the standard oral syringe.
DESIGN: Prospective open-label, randomized, crossover clinical study.
SETTING: General pediatric outpatient clinic at an urban university.
SUBJECTS: Thirty healthy, bottle-fed infants, aged 2-14 months, receiving routine vaccinations.
INTERVENTION: Each infant received a single dose of acetaminophen (Tempra syrup), with one-half delivered by the Rx medibottle and one-half delivered with an oral syringe.
MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Three raters independently evaluated effectiveness and infant acceptance of each drug-delivery device. Effectiveness was based on the percentage of infants receiving 100% of the intended dose. Infant acceptance was scored using a validated infant medication acceptance scale (MAS, 10 = highest level). Significantly more infants received 100% of the intended dose with the Rx medibottle (93.3%) than with the oral syringe (56.7%, p=0.0074). Infants had a significantly higher mean MAS score when using the Rx medibottle (8.3+/-1.8 vs 7.3+/-1.7, p=0.002). In addition, a significantly higher percentage had ideal MAS scores of 9 or above with the Rx medibottle (73%) compared with the oral syringe (17%, p=0.0001).
CONCLUSION: The Rx medibottle was more effective and had a higher level of infant acceptance than the oral syringe. Although further studies are necessary, this suggests that the Rx medibottle may be a better method of delivering liquid drug and may increase infant adherence.

Pharmacotherapy. [Pharmacotherapy]

Acetaminophen
Administration, Oral
Analgesics, Non-Narcotic
Bottle Feeding
Comparative Study
Cross-Over Studies
Equipment Design
Female
Humans
Infant
Infant Equipment
Male
Patient Satisfaction
Prospective Studies
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Syringes