With two acetaminophen boxes to hand, 46% dosed past the daily limit
Five hundred primary care patients showed how they would take real boxes over a day. Just under a quarter went past 4,000 mg using one product; with two, 46% did.
What the study found
Adding a second product nearly doubled who went over the limit
Five hundred primary care patients were handed real boxes and asked to show how they would take them over a day. Just under a quarter went past 4,000 mg using one acetaminophen product. Given two products containing it, 46% did.
The caveat · Leans toward lower health literacy
People were showing what they would do, not observed doing it at home, so this measures intent and understanding rather than behaviour. A public hospital clinic and a community practice were among the four sites, and the sample leans towards lower health literacy, which was itself one of two independent predictors of going over. The threshold scored against is the 4,000 mg liver warning rather than the lower per-product ceiling many labels now print, so against that figure the rates would be higher still.
What we don't know
People were showing what they would do, not observed doing it at home, so this measures intent and understanding rather than behaviour. A public hospital clinic and a community practice were among the four sites, and the sample leans towards lower health literacy, which was itself one of two independent predictors of going over. The threshold scored against is the 4,000 mg liver warning rather than the lower per-product ceiling many labels now print, so against that figure the rates would be higher still.