How well do patients understand medication information written in prescriptions? A study from Eastern India.

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.