Medication Barriers and Challenges Experienced/Perceived by Caregivers in Pediatric Medication Management: A Scoping Review.

Abstract

The objective of this scoping review was to identify the challenges and barriers non-professional caregivers such as parents, experience/perceive when managing the medications for pediatric patients with chronic disease states in an outpatient setting. Embase and Ovid Medline databases were searched for articles published from inception to May 18, 2024. The search was limited to English language articles. Studies conducted in countries with a developing or transitioning economy, or those based in an institutional setting were excluded. This review was conducted as per the Joanna Briggs Institute Manual for Evidence Synthesis scoping review methodology and adhered to the PRISMA-SCr 2020 Checklist. Evidence selection and data extraction was completed independently by 2 reviewers (AT and TB) and then combined. Medication barriers were identified, grouped and themed using thematic analysis. Eight articles were included in this review. After extraction, 20 medication barriers were identified and themed into the following categories: drug factors, drug burden/regimen, access to medications, caregiver factors, child factors, health care system challenges, and fear and stigma. Drug factor medication barriers were highly endorsed by non-professional caregivers (25% of total barriers), followed by caregiver factors (20% of total barriers). To increase the likelihood of pediatric medication administration success, research focused on improving these barriers should be identified, especially those related to drug formulation and caregiver medication knowledge and forgetfulness.