title: Comprehension by older people of medication information with or without supplementary pharmaceutical pictograms.
abstract: This study examined the benefits of pharmaceutical pictograms for improving comprehension of medication information for older people. Fifty Hong Kong Chinese older people completed a medical information comprehension task for five drugs. Participants in the control group were presented with text labels while those in the experimental group were given the text labels plus supplementary pharmaceutical pictograms, and then all reported their understanding of the medication information conveyed. Lower educated older people had poorer understanding of medication information. The addition of pharmaceutical pictograms significantly improved the comprehension of medication information for older people. The majority of older people tested with pictograms favored adding pictograms to text and thought the pictograms were useful for conveying medical information rather than using written text alone. The findings suggested that pharmaceutical and health care professionals should include pharmaceutical pictograms on labels to better convey instructions on medication to older people.
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. Electronic address: anniewy.ng@my.cityu.edu.hk.
authors.forename: Annie W Y
authors.initials: AWY
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Alan H S
authors.initials: AHS
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Vincy W S
authors.initials: VWS
authors.lastname: Ho
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D032882:Comprehension; D004348:Drug Labeling; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D058015:Health Communication / Q000379:methods*; D057220:Health Literacy; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D012660:Semantics
keywords: Comprehension; Medication information; Older people; Pharmaceutical symbols