Centre for Ageing Research & Education, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore; Signature Programme in Health Services and Systems Research, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.
Centre for Ageing Research & Education, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.
Res Social Adm Pharm. 2023 Nov;19(11):1455-1464. doi: 10.1016/j.sapharm.2023.07.009. Epub 2023 Jul 20.
Patient preferences for the content and format of prescription medication labels (PMLs, i.e., sticker labels placed on medication bottles/packets at dispensing) have been extensively studied. However, accommodating all preferences on PMLs is impractical due to space limitations. Understanding how patients prioritise the content and format attributes of PMLs can inform improvements while working within PML space constraints.
We aimed to (1) identify a ranking of medication-related content attributes to be prioritised on PMLs using best-worst scaling (BWS), and (2) determine the relative importance of format attributes when incorporated onto PMLs using discrete choice experiment (DCE), from the perspective of older adult patients in Singapore.
Attributes were informed by our prior qualitative study and PML best practice guidelines. For the BWS component, the assessed content attributes were indication, precautions, interaction or paired medicines, food instructions, side effects, expiry date, and missed dose action, all of which are currently not legally mandated on PMLs in Singapore. A BWS object case was used to rank the content attributes. For the DCE component, in a series of questions, participants were asked to choose between two PML options each time, that varied in the presentation of dosage-frequency instructions, font size, presentation of dosage, presentation of precautions, and font colour of precautions. A mixed logit model estimated the relative utilities of format attribute levels, enabling the calculation of importance scores of the format attributes.
The study recruited 280 participants (mean age: 68.8 ± 5.4 years). The three most-preferred content attributes were indication, precautions and interaction or paired medicines. The top three format preferences were tabular style presentation of dosage-frequency instructions, large font size and precautions in red colour.
Healthcare institutions should consider improving their PMLs based on the leading content and format preferences voiced by older adult patients. The methodology adopted in the study can also be used for aligning the content and format of other patient education materials with patient preferences.
患者对处方药物标签（PML，即在配药时贴在药瓶/药袋上的标签）的内容和格式偏好进行了广泛研究。然而，由于空间限制，满足所有 PML 偏好是不切实际的。了解患者如何优先考虑 PML 的内容和格式属性，可以为在 PML 空间限制内进行改进提供信息。
我们旨在（1）使用最佳最差标度法（BWS）确定 PML 上要优先考虑的药物相关内容属性的排名，以及（2）从新加坡老年患者的角度出发，使用离散选择实验（DCE）确定纳入 PML 时格式属性的相对重要性。
属性信息来自我们之前的定性研究和 PML 最佳实践指南。在 BWS 部分，评估的内容属性为适应证、注意事项、相互作用或联合用药、饮食说明、副作用、有效期和漏服剂量措施，所有这些内容目前在新加坡的 PML 上都没有法律要求。使用 BWS 对象案例对内容属性进行排名。在 DCE 部分，参与者在一系列问题中，每次都要在两种 PML 选项中进行选择，这两种选项在剂量-频率说明的呈现方式、字体大小、剂量呈现方式、注意事项呈现方式以及注意事项的字体颜色方面有所不同。混合 logit 模型估计了格式属性水平的相对效用，从而可以计算格式属性的重要性得分。
该研究招募了 280 名参与者（平均年龄：68.8±5.4 岁）。三个最受欢迎的内容属性是适应证、注意事项和相互作用或联合用药。三种最受欢迎的格式偏好是剂量-频率说明的表格样式呈现、大字体和红色的注意事项。
医疗机构应根据老年患者提出的主要内容和格式偏好来改进其 PML。该研究采用的方法也可用于使其他患者教育材料的内容和格式与患者偏好保持一致。
