Development of Comprehensible Prescription Label Instructions: A Study Protocol for a Mixed-Methods Approach

Area of Science:

• Health literacy research
• Patient adherence studies
• Primary healthcare interventions

Background:

• Prescription labels are key for medication information but often difficult to understand, particularly for patients with limited health literacy.
• Difficulties in understanding prescription labels can lead to incorrect medication use and impact patient safety.
• This study addresses the need for clearer prescription label instructions in primary healthcare settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the comprehensibility of current prescription label instructions among patients with varying health literacy skills.
• To develop and implement optimized prescription label instructions to improve understanding.
• To enhance medication adherence through clearer patient information.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-methods approach involving systematic literature review, content analysis, and patient interviews.
• Quantitative comparison of optimized versus standard prescription labels with patients of different health literacy levels.
• Implementation of optimized instructions in national medication databases and education for pharmacy workers.

Main Results:

• Anticipated scientific publications detailing individual study findings.
• Development of a guideline for composing comprehensible prescription label instructions.
• Implementation of optimized instructions in national medication databases to improve accessibility.

Conclusions:

• This research protocol outlines a mixed-methods approach to create and implement understandable prescription labels.
• Findings will advance knowledge on prescription label comprehensibility, focusing on limited health literacy populations.
• Optimized labels are expected to improve medication understanding and adherence, though non-textual elements were not assessed.