Health Literacy Level and Comprehension of Prescription and Nonprescription Drug Information

Meehoh Kim, David Suh, Joseph A. Barone, Sun-Young Jung, Wenchen Wu and Dong-Churl Suh
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Meehoh Kim: College of Pharmacy, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 151-756, Korea
David Suh: School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Joseph A. Barone: EM School of Pharmacy, Rutgers—The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
Sun-Young Jung: College of Pharmacy, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 151-756, Korea
Wenchen Wu: College of Pharmacy, St. John’s University, Queens, NY 11439, USA
Dong-Churl Suh: College of Pharmacy, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 151-756, Korea

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 11, 1-14

Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the level of misunderstanding of medication information in Korean adults after stratifying by level of health literacy and to identify the factors influencing the misunderstanding of medication information and reading amounts of information on OTC drug labels. A cross-sectional survey was performed with 375 adult participants using the survey instrument. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed to identify factors which influence misunderstanding of medication information. Participants misunderstood 20% of words on OTC drug labels, 9% of prescription drug instructions, and 9% of pictograms. Participants on average read 59% of the overall contents of the OTC drug labels. As prescription drugs’ dosing regimens became more complicated, the level of misunderstanding instructions increased. The level of misunderstanding words on OTC drug labels significantly decreased as participants had adequate health literacy (β = −18.11, p < 0.001) and higher education levels (β = −6.83, p < 0.001), after adjusting for the study variables. The level of misunderstanding instructions for prescription drugs increased as participants became older (β = 8.81, p < 0.001) and had lower education levels (β = −5.05, p < 0.001), after adjusting for the study variables. The level of misunderstanding pictograms was similar to that of misunderstanding instructions for prescription drug labels. The amount of reading information on OTC drug labels significantly increased as respondents had adequate health literacy (β = 9.27, p < 0.001), were older (β = 12.49, p < 0.001), or had chronic diseases (β = 7.49, p = 0.007). Individuals’ health literacy level, reading behaviors, and complexity of medication instructions are associated with misunderstanding of medication information. Appropriate word choices in drug labels and an improved format of medication instructions could increase understanding of medication information and prevent adverse drug reactions.

Keywords: health literacy; comprehension; nonprescription; pharmaceutical labeling; pictogram (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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