Loading...
Proper prescription drug use requires that a patient understand the label’s instructions. In a carefully designed study, researchers sought to determine whether primary care patients accurately read and understand prescription labels. Nearly 400 English-speaking patients (68% women; mean age, 45 years) attending clinics serving indigent communities in three states were asked to read and interpret prescription labels for five common medications. Almost 20% of patients read at or below a sixth-grade level, and almost 30% read at a seventh- or eighth-grade level, a literacy distribution close to that of the U.S. population.
Almost half the patients misunderstood at least one instruction. Lower literacy level and higher number of prescribed medi…