Patients' knowledge about medicines improves when provided with written compared to verbal information in their...

Patient's knowledge on the medicines prescribed is vital in reducing medication errors and improving adherence and patient satisfaction. This study assessed the patients' knowledge on medicines prescribed and compared improvement following verbal or written information given in patients own language.

Seventy-five trainee pharmacists randomised to verbal or written groups, provided information to consecutive consenting patients attending medical and surgical clinics in the outpatient department of National Hospital of Sri Lanka. Baseline knowledge and immediate recall knowledge was scored on 5 categories (name, indication, dose, frequency of administration, and additional relevant details) for each drug prescribed. Scores <5/10, 5-7/10 and > 7/10 were considered as poor, moderate, and good knowledge. Sample of 384 in each group had 80% power to detect a 10% difference in knowledge level. Data was analysed using SPSS v26.

Of the 747 patients, 429(57%) were females, mean age was 54.3 years(SD±12), 450(60%) were on 5 or more drugs and 149(20%) were elderly (>65 years). At baseline, knowledge scores were comparable in both groups with 47% (352/747) patients having poor knowledge, 34% (254/747) moderate knowledge and only 19% (141/747) good knowledge. Patients knew the name only on 1653(42%) drugs prescribed, indication on 1603(41%), dose on 860(22%), administration details on 2255(58%) and additional details (adverse effects/storage) only on 267(7%) medicines prescribed. After the intervention, 276(74%) patients had good knowledge (score>7), in written group vs 217(58%) in verbal group (p<0.05). In all 5 aspects knowledge improved significantly more in written group compared to the verbal group. Binomial logistic regression analysis indicated that ordinary level (OR:2.32), advanced level(OR:2.13) and university education(OR:3.72), and lower number of medicines prescribed(OR:0.83) significantly increased the odds of having a "Good Knowledge on Medicines".

Patient's knowledge on medicines prescribed was poor and providing the medication plan in writing in patients' own language would improve the knowledge significantly compared to providing verbal information.