Table 1.

Characteristics of the hospitalized patients according to occurrence of adverse drug events, identified using triggers in a federal hospital. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Southeastern Brazil, 2007.

Variable		No ADE		ADE		Total		Pa
		n	%	n	%	n	%
Mean ageb		53.3(17.3)	–	52.8(18.2)	–	53.2(17.4)	–	0.908
Sex								0.988
	Female	65	84.4	12	15.6	77	60.2
	Male	43	84.3	8	15.7	51	39.8
Race/Skin color								0.919
	White	48	82.8	10	17.2	58	48.7
	Black	19	86.4	3	13.6	22	18.5
	Mixed race	33	84.6	6	15.4	39	32.8
Schooling								0.57
	Did not finish primary education	54	80.6	13	19.4	67	73.6
	Did not finish secondary education	18	90.0	2	10.0	20	22.0
	Further education	3	75.0	1	25.0	4	4.4
Occupation								0.037
	Retired	37	82.2	8	17.8	45	47.9
	Homemaker	12	70.6	5	29.4	17	18.1
	Other	31	96.9	1	3.1	32	34.0
CCI								0.312
	0	67	87.0	10	13.0	77	60.2
	≥ 1	41	80.4	10	19.6	51	39.8
	Mean length of hospitalization (days)b	10.7(15.3)	–	35.2(28.0)	–	14.6(19.9)	–	< 0.01

CCI: Charlson Comorbidity Index; ADE: adverse drug event

^aChi-square or Fisher’s exact tests for categorical variables and Student’s t test for continual variables.

^bThe values shown are the means and, in brackets, the respective standard deviation.