Table 2.

Characteristics of pediatric prescription opioid (PO) instructions.

	N (%) with element
Amount of pediatric PO to take	12,538 (99.4%)
Discrete amount	10,664 (85.1%)
Range	2474 (14.9%)
Amount as numeral	12,508 (99.8%)
Amount as word	30 (0.2%)
Frequency of pediatric PO to take	12,542 (99.4%)
Specified frequency (every # hours)	12,365 (98.6%)
Range (every # hours)	107 (0.9%)
Specified frequency (# per day)	69 (0.6%)
Range (# per day)	1 (0.0%)
Route of pediatric PO administration	12,534 (99.4%)
“As needed”	12,369 (98.1%)
Pediatric PO indication specified	9954 (78.9%)
Severity of pain specified	9171 (92.1%)
Cause or location of pain specified	235 (2.4%)
Additional pediatric PO instructions	1534 (12.2%)
Instructions to limit pediatric PO medication	1161 (9.2%)
Maximum dosing frequency	12 (1.0%)
Maximum total amount	477 (38.5%)
Maximum duration for pediatric PO use	400 (34.5%)
Direction to use non-PO medication first	304 (26.2%)
Instruction to minimize amount of pediatric PO	19 (1.6%)
Instructions to wean pediatric PO	142 (1.1%)
Weaning steps specified for pediatric PO	68 (47.9%)
Potentially confusing phrasing	2443 (19.4%)

Note. A total of 12,613 pediatric PO were analyzed.