Safer dispensing labels for prescription medicines

Caze, Adam La

doi:10.18773/austprescr.2018.009

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…This is in accordance with literature that suggests understanding of health information has been correlated with terminology. 38,39,40 Even though most of the participants had an education level of grade 7-12 (90.00%), an individuals' ability to read and understand prescription labels (e.g. 'administer in frequent small volumes') may have been significantly worse than their general literacy because of unfamiliar vocabulary (difficult words) and concepts (e.g.…”

Section: Text Only On Medication Labelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…'administer' instead of 'take', 'frequent' instead of 'often') on the medication label. 36,40,41 However readability and subsequently, understandability may be tricky to achieve on OR dry-mixture packs because of the large amount of information required for safe use.…”

Section: Text Only On Medication Labelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The small sample size, also prevented the determination of the influence of language on the interpretation of the medicine label, which is a recognised limitation for the understanding of health information. 38,39,40 As per regulations, the instructions on the control label were in two of the official languages, Afrikaans and English, and the instructions on the experimental pack were in English only ('text-and-pictogram' instructions). Almost all the participants (63.6%) that were recruited for the study were Afrikaans speaking.…”

Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The effectiveness of using text and pictograms on oral rehydration, dry-mixture sachet labels

Heyns

Huyssteen

Bheekie

2021

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine

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Background Medication labels are often the only information available to patients after obtaining medication from a healthcare practitioner. Pictograms are graphic symbols that have shown to increase understanding of medicine use instructions. Aim To compare the accuracy of the interpretation of medicine use instructions from two different oral rehydration (OR) dry-mixture sachet labels – the control ‘routine textonly’ label and an experimental label with ‘text-and-pictograms’. Setting Participants were recruited from waiting rooms in public primary health care (PHC) facilities in Cape Town. Method Each participant was required to answer six questions about OR preparation. Response accuracy was determined by comparing the participant’s answer to the actual information written on the relevant label. Afterwards, participants could offer their opinion about the label and ways to improve their understanding. Results Of the 132 participants who were recruited, 67 were allocated to the experimental group and 65 to the control group. Only the significant difference between the experimental and control groups for the six questions regarding the label, was recorded for the answer that could be read from a single pictogram ( p = 0.00) on the experimental group’s label. When asked about this question, more control participants (15/65) found the dosing instruction difficult to understand when compared to the experimental group (1/67). A third of the control participants (22/65) indicated that they could not see or locate instructions on the label. Conclusion Text and pictograms on written medicine labels may be an effective tool to aid understanding of medicine use instructions amongst patients attending PHC facilities.

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Section: Text Only On Medication Labelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Text Only On Medication Labelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Strengths and Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The effectiveness of using text and pictograms on oral rehydration, dry-mixture sachet labels

Heyns

Huyssteen

Bheekie

2021

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine

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“…Information on the appropriate time of day to take medicines is often lacking. Only a limited number of drugs specify a time of day,4 but including explicit directions around timing on the labels applied at the pharmacy during dispensing is encouraged to help patients safely take their drugs 8. The timing of doses is important in some cases to avoid adverse effects, such as taking bisphosphonates in the morning once the patient is up and about to minimise the risk of oesophageal ulceration, and taking drugs with sedative effects at bedtime to minimise daytime sedation.…”

Section: What Time Of Day Is Best?mentioning

confidence: 99%

When should I take my medicines?

Grannell¹

2019

Aust Prescr

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SUMMARY Adherence to drug regimens is critical to optimise therapeutic outcomes. To aid adherence patient preferences must be discussed when considering the timing of doses, especially for chronic therapy The appropriate timing of administration should maximise therapeutic effects and minimise adverse reactions. If possible, doses should fit with the patient’s daily routines Check if drug absorption is affected by meals. Food may increase or decrease absorption, and may also improve gastric tolerance Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are usually taken with food. For patients with acute pain, administration without food may be acceptable The best time to take antihypertensive drugs is uncertain. Chronotherapy studies may clarify any influence of evening or morning doses on clinical outcomes

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“…12 There are several reasons that contribute to poor understanding of label instructions, including the design of the prescription label, lack of coherency in information, and the text of the dosing instructions itself. 13 Firstly, the overall design and format of labels containing instructions for use are not optimally designed to communicate dosing instructions. The instructions and warnings on the label have less visual impact than other label content.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Nature and frequency of dosing instructions on prescription labels in primary care

Borgsteede¹,

Heringa

2019

Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug

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Purpose To investigate the nature and frequency of dosing instructions and auxiliary labels on prescription labels in primary care. Methods A retrospective analysis of data on prescription labels of dispensed drugs extracted from the pharmacy information system of community pharmacies in the Netherlands. Dosing instructions were categorized into four types. Results Data were extracted from 123 community pharmacies. All drugs dispensed for a random sample of 10% of patients were selected. In the sample of 938 479 prescriptions, 96% had a predefined dosing instruction and 2995 different coded instructions were used. Ninety‐five percent of all instructions were covered by 354 coded instructions. Most prescriptions were coded with an instruction indicating once daily use (48.4%) or twice or more times daily use (23.8%) without specification of the time (eg, “1 tablet 1 time a day”). A general instruction (“use as directed”) was given for 7.0% of all prescriptions, and for 6.0%, the instruction was to use “as needed.” For most prescriptions (80.6%), one or more auxiliary labels were generated with the warning “may cause drowsiness” (17.9%) being the most frequent one. Conclusions A limited set of instructions covered the majority of the prescriptions. About a quarter of the prescription labels contained nonspecific dosing instructions for use multiple times a day, and 13.0% were general or “use as needed” instructions. These instructions can potentially be made more comprehensible by rewording and specification of the time of day.

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Safer dispensing labels for prescription medicines

Cited by 15 publications

References 10 publications

The effectiveness of using text and pictograms on oral rehydration, dry-mixture sachet labels

The effectiveness of using text and pictograms on oral rehydration, dry-mixture sachet labels

When should I take my medicines?

Nature and frequency of dosing instructions on prescription labels in primary care

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