TY  - BOOK
AU  - Debaleena Das
AU  - Kotal Shreya
TI  - How well do patients understand medication information written in prescriptions? A study from Eastern India
KW  - Comprehension
KW  - India
KW  - medicines
KW  - obervational study
KW  - prescription
KW  - understanding
N2  - INTRODUCTION: 
Appropriate understanding of medicine-related advice in a prescription by patients ensures therapeutic compliance and mitigates avoidable medication intake-related errors.

AIMS: 
This study assessed how well patients or their caregivers attending a tertiary care hospital have understood medicine-related information in their outpatient department (OPD) prescription.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: 
This prospective questionnaire-based observational study was conducted on patients attending outpatient clinics of four departments of a tertiary care hospital. The questionnaire had both open and close-ended questions, which assessed understanding of written information related to the prescribed medicines.

RESULTS: 
A total of 380 patients were enrolled in the study. 59.21% (95% CI 54.2–64.04) respondents had an excellent or good understanding of drug dosage. Similarly, 40% (95% CI 35.2–45) about drug frequency and 59.77% (95% CI 54.66–64.7) had excellent understanding of drug duration. However, overall composite understanding of prescriptions was poor in 36.84% (95% CI 32.14–41.8) of study participants. Patients with a higher level of education or from higher socioeconomic groups had a better understanding compared to other educational and socioeconomic categories. Suggestions for better patient understanding included prescriptions in vernacular language and pictorial representations.

CONCLUSIONS: 
The study conducted in a tertiary care public hospital in India, reveals suboptimal understanding of medication-related information in OPD prescriptions. Based on the study outcome, measures have been taken to address the issue. Furthermore, there is a need for designing tailored interventions based on the patient profile attending a healthcare facility to facilitate better understanding
ER  -