Wegmans School of Pharmacy at St John Fisher College, Rochester, NY.
Department of Pharmacy Practice and Administration.
Acad Pediatr. 2018 Jul;18(5):556-562. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2018.02.012. Epub 2018 Feb 26.
To 1) assess and compare knowledge and literacy of over-the-counter (OTC) medications among middle school (MS) and high school (HS) students, and 2) to assess student self-identified lack of knowledge regarding OTC medications.
A convenience sample of suburban adolescent students completed a 2-part survey about OTC medications: part 1 included demographics and baseline knowledge of OTCs, and part 2 included medication label interpretation (literacy). Descriptive statistics and chi-square test were used to summarize and compare responses among MS and HS students.
Students (n = 309) were in MS (46.2%) and HS (53.8%), with a mean age of 14 ± 1.8 years, 61.4% male, 81.2% white, and 84.3% non-Hispanic. A majority of students (68.5%) agreed that they always speak with an adult before taking medication. Students responded correctly to 19% of brand versus generic knowledge questions; conversely, 65% selected "I don't know." Similar trends were seen for questions about medication indications (26% correct, 59% didn't know), side-effects (8% correct, 67% didn't know), and combining medications (21% correct, 63% didn't know). When students referenced a medication label, 55% answered label interpretation questions correctly and 30% reported "I don't know." HS students answered more questions correctly and were less likely to report "I don't know" to questions about common OTC medications (eg, ibuprofen, Tylenol, etc) compared with MS students (P < .05).
Overall, baseline knowledge of OTC medications was low; however, students were better at interpretation of drug labels. MS students self-reported less knowledge about common OTC medications compared with HS students. This study provides an important foundation for future OTC medication educational programs for adolescents.
1）评估和比较中学生（MS）和高中生（HS）对非处方（OTC）药物的知识和读写能力，2）评估学生对 OTC 药物缺乏了解的情况。
采用方便取样的方法，对郊区青少年学生进行了一项关于 OTC 药物的 2 部分调查：第 1 部分包括人口统计学和 OTC 的基础知识，第 2 部分包括药物标签解读（读写能力）。使用描述性统计和卡方检验来总结和比较 MS 和 HS 学生的反应。
学生（n=309）分别来自 MS（46.2%）和 HS（53.8%），平均年龄为 14±1.8 岁，61.4%为男性，81.2%为白人，84.3%为非西班牙裔。大多数学生（68.5%）表示，他们在服用药物之前总是会与成年人交谈。学生在品牌与通用知识问题上的回答正确率为 19%；相反，65%的学生选择“不知道”。关于药物适应症（26%答对，59%不知道）、副作用（8%答对，67%不知道）和药物联合使用（21%答对，63%不知道）的问题也出现了类似的趋势。当学生参考药物标签时，55%的学生正确回答了标签解释问题，30%的学生回答“不知道”。与 MS 学生相比，HS 学生对常见 OTC 药物（如布洛芬、泰诺等）的问题回答得更正确，回答“不知道”的比例更低（P<.05）。
总的来说，学生对 OTC 药物的基础知识了解较少，但他们对药物标签的解读能力更强。与 HS 学生相比，MS 学生自我报告对常见 OTC 药物的了解较少。这项研究为未来青少年的 OTC 药物教育计划提供了重要基础。
