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

Abstract

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.

Evaluation of knowledge, attitude, and perception of pictograms in improving understanding of foreign medicine packages and leaflets among Malaysians

“…Hence, the effectiveness of pictograms in conveying information may vary among different respondents. In addition, several studies also emphasize that pictograms are more effective in delivering information when used in conjunction with text, rather than when used alone (Algabbani et al, 2022;Heyns et al, 2021). Furthermore, it is evident that a majority of the respondents agreed that pictograms can improve the usage of medications.…”

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“…Hence, the effectiveness of pictograms in conveying information may vary among different respondents. In addition, several studies also emphasize that pictograms are more effective in delivering information when used in conjunction with text, rather than when used alone (Algabbani et al, 2022;Heyns et al, 2021). Furthermore, it is evident that a majority of the respondents agreed that pictograms can improve the usage of medications.…”

Impacto de la adición de pictogramas farmacéuticos como ayuda visual sobre la comprensión de prospectos en estudiantes de educación secundaria

“…La diferencia fue más notable en la cuestión relacionada con la dosis total del antibiótico dónde, por cada acierto en el grupo control se produjeron 3.87 aciertos en el grupo experimental. Sin embargo, los resultados de estudios similares (20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27) no siempre obtuvieron resultados estadísticamente significativos en favor de la comprensión tras la inclusión de ayudas visuales al acondicionamiento primario o secundario de los medicamentos. No obstante, se detecta una heterogeneidad metodológica importante que impide generalizar resultados en los estudios que evaluaron esta comparación (texto vs. texto + pictogramas), como la diferente sensibilidad cultural entre los pictogramas auxiliares y la población objetivo o la diferente complejidad de la carga textual evaluada.…”