Some 250,000 Australians are hospitalised each year as a result of adverse reactions to medications — a figure that has changed little in 30 years, a new report suggests.

A review of 16 Australian studies estimates that 2.5% of all hospital admissions are caused by adverse reactions to medicines. They also make up about 7% of emergency department admissions.

Study co-author Professor Libby Roughead says it’s “particularly disturbing” that the number of Australians hospitalised due to medication adverse events doesn’t seem to have fallen in 30 years.

“The landscape has changed quite dramatically in terms of just how many medicines we are using and the complexity of their use, while the evidence base isn’t there to tell us how they all should be used together,” says Professor Roughead, a researcher at the Quality Use of Medicines and Pharmacy Research Centre at the University of SA, Adelaide.