Evaluation of user’s perspective on readability and understanding of medicine package inserts

Abstract

Background: Aim of this study was to evaluate the user’s perspective on readability and understanding of Medicine package inserts (MPIs). Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the community pharmacy settings, encompassing participants from urban and rural areas of Pune, Mumbai, and Thane districts. The user’s ability to read and understand was assessed using a 3-point Likert scale and was correlated to their socio-demographic characteristics using Pearson’s coefficient. Also, the difference in the means between the groups was analysed using the student’s test. A p-value ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Out of 502 respondents, most of the participants had the habit of reading MPI (51.3%). Although, on correlating the level of difficulty to the participant's socio-demographic characteristics, a little difficulty in reading (57.8%) and understanding (60%) of instructions respectively were reported in participants of the age group: 38-57 years (57%; 60%), who were graduate (70.2%; 69.8%), and was significantly associated to their area of residence (p<0.5). Addressing the language barrier and providing MPI in their native language increased participants’ readability by a whopping 57%, who earlier stated ‘difficulty to read (70.49%)’ as the major factor to not refer MPIs. Conclusions: More than half the respondents (51.4%) usually read the MPI. Nonetheless, people stated that they faced difficulty in reading and understanding it. Diversifying this data by age and level of education can help policymakers ensure a user-directed upgrade of the package inserts and implement patient education in the users’ native language by healthcare providers such as pharmacists.