[Compliance with long-term drug treatment: the prescription as a means of health education].
OBJECTIVE
To examine whether the new prescription form, when it is correctly filled in and gives adequate information about the meaning of the treatment instructions, provides long-term patients with a higher level of understanding of their drugs treatment than the old prescription form.


METHODS
Prospective, descriptive study.


METHODS
Primary Care level.


METHODS
Those users of the Health Area undergoing long-term pharmacological treatments and supervised by the nursing staff using the Health Centre Medication Card.


METHODS
The 193 users who fulfilled these criteria for inclusion in the study were given three questionnaires. The first contained the old prescription form; the second, the new prescription form, without the spaces for the treatment instructions being filled in; the third, the new form, with the treatment instructions filled in and their meaning explained.


RESULTS
Users were faced with the old prescription form and the new one correctly filled in plus explanation. Comparison between the two showed that out of 38 cases of error with the old form, 14 (36.84%) increased their understanding of the treatment. This was a statistically significant improvement: [Tc] < [Te] with an average of (-3.77), with a typical deviation of 1.16 and p < 0.05.


CONCLUSIONS
The prescription form can be a good way of improving the efficacy of staff intervention.
Cayuelas Onieva
F
F
CAP de Parets del Vallès, Barcelona.
Martín Morales
E
E
Navarro Heras
J
J
D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004358:Drug Therapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005568:Forms and Records Control; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010349:Patient Compliance; D013030:Spain; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors
Cumplimiento del tratamiento farmacológico de larga duración: la receta como vía de educación sanitaria.