Calculating reading ease score of patient package inserts in Iran

Area of Science:

• Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Health Communication
• Public Health

Background:

• Patient package inserts (PPIs) are essential for conveying medication information to patients.
• Clear and understandable language in PPIs is crucial for patient comprehension and adherence.
• Current PPIs may not be accessible to the general population, impacting health literacy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the readability and understandability of drug package inserts for inexpert individuals in Iran.
• To assess the suitability of PPIs for the general patient population.

Main Methods:

• Readability of 158 PPIs for 33 top-selling drugs in Iran (2015) was analyzed.
• PPIs were collected from pharmacies in Tabriz, Ardabil, and Meshgin Shahr.
• The Flesch-Dayani readability (FDR) tool, adapted for Persian, was used to calculate readability scores.

Main Results:

• The average FDR readability score was 52.52, corresponding to a 10th-11th grade reading level.
• 70.89% of PPIs were found to be difficult to read, significantly harder than standard readability.
• Only 13.92% of PPIs were suitable for 5th-7th grade readers, with 15.19% suitable for 8th-9th grade readers.

Conclusions:

• A significant portion of Iranian PPIs exhibit low readability, making them unsuitable for the average consumer.
• Poor readability may lead to arbitrary medication use or reliance on outdated prescriptions.
• Enhancing PPI readability is essential to ensure information accessibility and usefulness for the majority of patients.