Age-specific differences in patient safety incidents: focus on falls and medication using the Korean patient safety incident reporting and learning system (2016–2023)

Patient safety incidents (PSIs) pose a significant global healthcare challenge, especially for vulnerable populations such as children and young adults (CYAs, aged 0–19 years), middle-aged adults (MAs, aged 20–60 years), and older adults (OAs, aged 20–60 years). Falls and medication errors are common hospital-based incidents with serious health impacts. Targeted prevention strategies are needed due to differing age-related risks. Therefore, we aimed to analyze the characteristics and key risk factors of falls and medication incidents across different age groups using 8 years (2016–2023) data from the Korea Patient Safety Incident Reporting and Learning System (KOPS). We analyzed 57,340 incident reports from the KOPS between 2016 and 2023. Statistical analyses, including frequency analysis, cross-tabulation, and multilevel logistic regression, were performed using SAS v9.4 to identify factors associated with patient safety incident severity across different age groups. In CYAs the risk of medication was 57.25 times higher in other departments (including pediatrics), 1.60 times higher in the emergency room, and 2.06 times higher in the intensive care unit compared to MAs. In contrast, for OAs, the risk of fall was 1.42 times higher among adverse events, 1.87 times higher in internal medicine, 1.56 times higher in hospitals with 200 to 499 beds, 1.29 times higher during night shifts, and 1.30 times higher in patient room compared to MAs. We identified distinct age-specific risk associations in PSIs, with medication incidents predominantly affecting CYAs, and fall incidents primarily impacting OAs. These findings underscore the necessity for healthcare systems to implement targeted, age-specific safety protocols and enhance monitoring strategies. Strengthening surveillance practices and delivering age-appropriate education programs are critical to preventing incidents among vulnerable populations.