title: Improving medicine usage through patient information leaflets in India.
abstract: The impact of patient information leaflets (PILs) was measured in an outpatient department of a large tertiary care public health facility in India. Patients were allocated to control (114) or intervention group (118). Patients in the intervention group received PILs. The primary indicators [mean +/- standard deviation (SD)] improved significantly in the intervention group compared with the control group (15.7 +/- 7.3 versus 12.2 +/- 5.4). A three-fold (P < 0.01) increase in the awareness of the supplementary scores was observed in the intervention group (9.5 +/- 5.2 versus 3.3 +/- 2.7) compared with the control group (3.5 +/- 2.8 versus 3.5 +/- 2.8). Confounding variables, viz. age, sex, literacy level, did not influence the patients' knowledge. When the number of drugs prescribed increased, the patient's knowledge decreased significantly (P < 0.0001). PILs provided to the patients by the pharmacist significantly improved knowledge about medication, and improved compliance at home.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India. usha_gupta2@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Usha
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: Sangeeta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Prafull D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Sheth
authors.forename: Jeevan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jha
authors.forename: Ranjit Roy
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Chaudhury
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D033181:Information Dissemination; D008297:Male; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D010349:Patient Compliance; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D011446:Prospective Studies
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations