Testing a medicine information needs identification tool (MINI-Q) with hospital inpatients in New Zealand

Abstract

Background

Determining an individual's medicines information preferences and needs could enable health professionals to deliver more effective medicines information and help build patients' health literacy and ability to self-manage their health.

Aim

This descriptive, cross-sectional study aimed to test a new information needs assessment tool, the Medicine Information Needs for Individuals – Questionnaire (MINI-Q), which elicits what individuals want to know about their medicines. This study aimed to explore the face validity, acceptability, and feasibility of using the tool in a hospital inpatient setting.

Method

Ethical approval was obtained from Health and Disability Ethics Committees (Reference no: 18/NTA/137). Following ethical approval, adult hospital inpatients from two service divisions in one large urban hospital in New Zealand were invited to self-assess their medicines information needs using the 23-item MINI-Q via a tablet or on paper. Descriptive statistics were generated from the quantitative data and responses to a free-text question were inductively analysed.

Results

The MINI-Q was completed by 228 inpatients, 137 (60%) of whom used a tablet. Participants requested information on 80.6% of the possible topics. The most common topic that participants wanted information about was possible side effects (92%). No additional topics to include in the MINI-Q were identified from the free-text responses. The median completion time of the tablet version was 9.2 min (interquartile range 6.7–14.6).

Conclusion

The MINI-Q shows promise to efficiently identify an individual's medicines information needs in an inpatient setting. The findings reinforce that most people want to know all the basic information about their medicines, with side effects being particularly important.