Division of Medical Policy Programs, Office of Medical Policy Initiatives, Office of Medical Policy, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 10903 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20993, USA.
Office of Economics and Analysis, Office of Policy, Legislation, and International Affairs, Office of the Commissioner, FDA, 10903 New Hampshire Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20993, USA.
Health Promot Int. 2024 Feb 1;39(1). doi: 10.1093/heapro/daad190.
Medication guides (MGs) provide patients with important information about certain prescription drugs to help them take these drugs safely. We surveyed US residents about their perceptions of MG readability and understandability. We randomly sampled 5204 US residents (age 18+) from Ipsos's KnowledgePanel to complete a two-part survey. Only respondents who reported receiving an MG with their prescription drugs (n = 3852) completed part 2, which included two key items: How easy to [(1)read/(2)understand] are the MGs that you have received from a pharmacy along with your prescription medicines? (1 = Very easy, 5 = Very difficult; reverse-coded). Health literacy (HL) and demographic data were also collected. After weighting our data, we found that 85% of respondents who reported receiving an MG perceived this information as 'very easy' (27.3%), 'somewhat easy' (28.3%) or 'about average' (29.3%) to read. Eighty-seven percent of respondents who reported receiving an MG perceived it as 'very easy' (27.6%), 'somewhat easy' (30.2%) or 'about average' (29.5%) to understand. ANOVAs revealed higher average perceived MG reading and comprehension ease scores among respondents presumed to have adequate versus inadequate HL (ps ≤ 0.0006). Younger or less-educated respondents and non-Hispanic Blacks perceived MGs as easier to read and understand, on average, than their counterparts (ps ≤ 0.0001). Many of these relationships remained intact in models predicting perceived MG reading and comprehension ease (ps ≤ 0.001). Adjusted R2 values across models were small, however (≤0.06). Our findings suggest most US residents (18+) who received MGs perceived them to be 'about average' to 'very easy' to read and understand.
用药指南（MGs）为患者提供有关特定处方药的重要信息，以帮助他们安全使用这些药物。我们调查了美国居民对 MG 可读性和可理解性的看法。我们从 Ipsos 的 KnowledgePanel 中随机抽取了 5204 名美国居民（18 岁以上）完成了一项两部分的调查。只有报告收到与处方药一起开具的 MG 的受访者（n=3852）完成了第二部分，其中包括两个关键项目：您从药房收到的与处方药一起开具的 MG 有多容易 [(1)阅读/(2)理解]？（1=非常容易，5=非常困难；反向编码）。还收集了健康素养（HL）和人口统计学数据。在对我们的数据进行加权后，我们发现 85%的报告收到 MG 的受访者认为这些信息“非常容易”（27.3%）、“有点容易”（28.3%）或“平均水平”（29.3%）阅读。87%的报告收到 MG 的受访者认为它“非常容易”（27.6%）、“有点容易”（30.2%）或“平均水平”（29.5%）理解。方差分析显示，假定具有足够或不足的 HL 的受访者的平均感知 MG 阅读和理解容易程度评分更高（p≤0.0006）。年轻或受教育程度较低的受访者和非西班牙裔黑人平均认为 MG 比他们的同龄人更容易阅读和理解（p≤0.0001）。在预测感知 MG 阅读和理解容易程度的模型中，许多这些关系仍然存在（p≤0.001）。然而，模型的调整 R2 值很小，但是（≤0.06）。我们的研究结果表明，大多数收到 MGs 的美国居民（18 岁以上）认为它们“平均水平”到“非常容易”阅读和理解。
