Abstract
Studies concerning health literacy indicate that health-related materials cannot be understood by most of the people for whom they are intended. A primary aim of the current study was to evaluate the extent to which medication information sheets effectively convey instructions and health information to populations who may be at risk of making errors: seniors (65+), new and inexperienced medication users (ages 16–21), and English learners. An “experimental” information sheet was created for this study by reformatting existing sheets to comport with results of my prior science fair research. A comprehension test was also created for this study. Two existing information sheets (one commonly used by pharmacy chains and one by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration [FDA]) were compared to the experimental sheet using a mixed-model ANOVA. Results indicate that the young, inexperienced users and seniors performed significantly better when tested using the reformatted, experimental sheet. Since seniors use significantly more drugs, and the more drugs taken the greater risk of misunderstanding instructions, it is critical that these sheets are redesigned to be usable by this population group.
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