The effect of illustrations on patient comprehension of medication instruction labels.
BMC Fam Pract
; 6(1): 26, 2005 Jun 16.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-15960849
BACKGROUND: Labels with special instructions regarding how a prescription medication should be taken or its possible side effects are often applied to pill bottles. The goal of this study was to determine whether the addition of illustrations to these labels affects patient comprehension. METHODS: Study participants (N = 130) were enrolled by approaching patients at three family practice clinics in Toronto, Canada. Participants were asked to interpret two sets of medication instruction labels, the first with text only and the second with the same text accompanied by illustrations. Two investigators coded participants' responses as incorrect, partially correct, or completely correct. Health literacy levels of participants were measured using a validated instrument, the REALM test. RESULTS: All participants gave a completely correct interpretation for three out of five instruction labels, regardless of whether illustrations were present or not. For the two most complex labels, only 34-55% of interpretations of the text-only version were completely correct. The addition of illustrations was associated with improved performance in 5-7% of subjects and worsened performance in 7-9% of subjects. CONCLUSION: The commonly-used illustrations on the medication labels used in this study were of little or no use in improving patients' comprehension of the accompanying written instructions.
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Alta del Paciente
/
Conocimientos, Actitudes y Práctica en Salud
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Educación del Paciente como Asunto
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Comprensión
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Etiquetado de Medicamentos
Límite:
Adult
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Aged
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Female
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Humans
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Male
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Middle aged
País/Región como asunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Revista:
BMC Fam Pract
Año:
2005
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Canadá
Pais de publicación:
Reino Unido