Background — Consumer Medicine Information (CMI) is brand‐specific, written drug information produced by pharmaceutical companies and intended for consumers in Australia. The content of CMI is defined in legal regulations. Objectives — This exploratory study investigated: (a) consumers' awareness, perceptions and modes of CMI use, (b) the impact of CMI on consumers, and (c) possible factors affecting CMI use. Methods — Six focus groups (n=57 consumers) were conducted. Discussions were tape‐recorded, transcribed verbatim and thematically analysed. Setting — Metropolitan Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Key findings — Most participants were aware of written information about prescription medications but were unfamiliar with the term “CMI”. Few had experienced a health care professional providing or discussing CMI but most had read it and found it useful. There were many suggestions for improvements to the format and content of CMI to increase its “user‐friendliness”. CMI had caused anxiety in some participants but increased awareness of their medications in others. Several factors appeared to increase the likelihood of CMI use: information‐oriented coping mechanism, severe disease, internal locus of control, appropriate timing of information provision, and care‐giver role. Conversely, difficulty in reading and understanding CMI, confidence in health care professionals and perceived “problem‐free” therapies appeared to reduce CMI use. Conclusions — Although consumers were aware of and read written drug information, there was limited interaction with a health professional when written information was provided.

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Objective To investigate the influence of patient factors on patientsÕ reading and seeking of written medicine information (WMI).Design A cross-sectional questionnaire study.Main variables studied Patient's health locus of control, coping style, health literacy, demographics and disease state (independent variables) and patient's interest and likelihood in reading and seeking WMI (dependent variables).Main outcome measures Patient factors predicting interest in reading and seeking WMI.Setting and participants Patients (total n ¼ 479) from three Rheumatology/Pain clinics in teaching hospitals (n ¼ 217) and 40 community pharmacies (n ¼ 262) in metropolitan Sydney, Australia.Results The majority of patients were interested and likely to read WMI about their prescription medicines. However, not many were likely to seek WMI and not many frequently sought WMI. Using logistic regression, patientsÕ interest in reading WMI was predicted by their coping style [monitor vs. blunter Conclusions PatientsÕ interest in reading and seeking WMI were influenced by several patient factors including disease state, health locus of control, coping style, health literacy levels and occupation. Furthermore, the results highlighted that reading and seeking WMI were regarded as distinct activities influenced by different factors. These findings may guide health professionals in assessing the utility of WMI for different patient groups and more broadly in the tailoring of patient education to meet patient needs.

The CIRF appears to be a robust instrument for assessing consumers' perceptions of written medicine information. However, validity always needs to be reestablished when using a previously validated measure in a different population.

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