Munsour Emad Eldin, Awaisu Ahmed, Hassali Mohamed Azmi Ahmad, Darwish Sara, Abdoun Einas
Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia.
Qatar University, Doha, Qatar.
J Pharm Technol. 2017 Aug;33(4):128-136. doi: 10.1177/8755122517706978. Epub 2017 Apr 28.
The readability and comprehensibility of the patient information leaflets (PILs) provided with antidiabetic medications are of questionable standards; this issue negatively affects adherence to drug therapy, especially in patients with limited literacy skills. To evaluate the readability and comprehensibility of PILs supplied with medications used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus in Qatar. All PILs of the antidiabetic medications in Qatar were evaluated using the Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) score for readability. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Gunning-Fog Index, and SMOG Grading were used to estimate the comprehensibility of PILs in terms of school grade levels. A total of 45 PILs were evaluated: 32 (71.1%) PILs of brand-name products and 13 (28.9%) for generics. Nine (20%) of the PILs were in English only; 8 (17.8%) were in English, Arabic, and French; and 28 (62.2%) were in English and Arabic. The mean FRE score was 37.71 (±15.85), and the most readable PIL had FRE score of 62. The mean scores for the comprehensibility evaluations were 10.96 (±2.67), 15.02 (±2.52), and 11.41 (±1.6) for the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Gunning-Fog Index, and SMOG Grading, respectively. The most commonly used antidiabetic medication was metformin with 1372.9 (±552.9) as PILs' mean number of words. Only 2.2% of PILs had acceptable readability scores. All PILs could be comprehended by at least an 11th grade student, which exceeds the recommended grade level for health-related materials. Approximately 20% of these PILs were in English only and were not readable by most patients.
随抗糖尿病药物提供的患者信息单页（PILs）的可读性和可理解性标准存疑；这个问题对药物治疗的依从性有负面影响，尤其是对识字能力有限的患者。为评估卡塔尔用于治疗2型糖尿病的药物所附PILs的可读性和可理解性。使用弗莱什易读性（FRE）分数对卡塔尔所有抗糖尿病药物的PILs进行可读性评估。弗莱什-金凯德年级水平、冈宁-福格指数和烟雾分级用于根据学校年级水平估计PILs的可理解性。共评估了45份PILs：32份（71.1%）为品牌产品的PILs，13份（28.9%）为仿制药的PILs。9份（20%）PILs仅为英文；8份（17.8%）为英文、阿拉伯文和法文；28份（62.2%）为英文和阿拉伯文。平均FRE分数为37.71（±15.85），最易读的PIL的FRE分数为62。弗莱什-金凯德年级水平、冈宁-福格指数和烟雾分级的可理解性评估平均分数分别为10.96（±2.67）、15.02（±2.52）和11.41（±1.6）。最常用的抗糖尿病药物是二甲双胍，PILs的平均单词数为1372.9（±552.9）。只有2.2%的PILs具有可接受的可读性分数。所有PILs至少需要十一年级的学生才能理解，这超过了健康相关材料的推荐年级水平。这些PILs中约20%仅为英文，大多数患者无法读懂。
