Leat Susan J, Krishnamoorthy Abinaya, Carbonara Antonio, Gold Deborah, Rojas-Fernandez Carlos
School of Optometry and Vision Science (Leat, Krishnamoorthy, Carbonara), University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario.
Can Pharm J (Ott). 2016 May;149(3):174-84. doi: 10.1177/1715163516641432. Epub 2016 Apr 11.
Most current prescription labels fail to meet print guidelines, especially in print size. We therefore compared the legibility of current prescription medication labels against the legibility of prototype labels, based on current guidelines for legibility.
Sample medication labels were obtained from pharmacies, and prototype medication labels were developed according to legibility guidelines from nongovernmental organizations and pharmacy organizations. Three groups of participants, consisting of older adults with normal vision, older adults with visual impairment and younger adults with visual impairment (total N = 71) took part. Participants were asked to read and rank the labels. Reading speed and accuracy were determined.
Accuracies were high (75%-100%), and there were no significant differences between samples or prototypes or between groups. Prototypes, however, were read faster than samples (p < 0.001). Subjectively, participants preferred the largest print option (p < 0.001) and instructions with the numbers written in highlighted uppercase words (p < 0.001).
The results indicate that improvements to the label would include larger print size, a consistent layout with left justification and using upper case with highlighting for emphasis of the numbers in the instructions.
目前大多数处方标签不符合印刷指南，尤其是在字体大小方面。因此，我们根据现行的易读性指南，将当前处方药物标签的易读性与原型标签的易读性进行了比较。
从药房获取样本药物标签，并根据非政府组织和药房组织的易读性指南开发原型药物标签。三组参与者参与了研究，包括视力正常的老年人、视力受损的老年人和视力受损的年轻人（共71人）。要求参与者阅读标签并进行排序。确定阅读速度和准确性。
准确率较高（75%-100%），样本与原型之间或组间均无显著差异。然而，原型标签的阅读速度比样本快（p<0.001）。主观上，参与者更喜欢最大字体选项（p<0.001）以及数字用突出显示的大写单词书写的说明（p<0.001）。
结果表明，标签的改进措施包括更大的字体大小、左对齐的一致布局以及使用大写并突出显示以强调说明中的数字。
