Health Literacy and Medication Literacy in Saudi Arabia: Current Status

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Background: Low health literacy and medication literacy can be associated with adverse medication-related events. The objectives of this research were to characterize medication use, describe health information sources, and characterize medication literacy in the KSA population.
 Methods: A cross-sectional nationwide survey was conducted among Saudi residents aged 18 years or above.
 Results: A total of 3,557 surveys were available for analysis (men = 1,811 and women = 1,746). Respondents were concentrated in younger categories, and each region was represented by 7% to 8% of respondents by design. Twenty-three percent of respondents (n = 825) reported having at least one chronic disease. A total of 1,882 (53%) of respondents reported ever looking for health information; of those, web pages were the most popular information sources. Among those taking medication for chronic disease, only 61% agreed that they knew how their medication should be monitored, 51% agreed that they knew what to do if they missed a dose, and 50% agreed that they knew their drug's side effects.
 Conclusion: This study's results suggest that interventions focused on medication literacy and tailored to prevalent chronic disease groups should be explored. Because the most common source of health information is web pages, interventions to improve overall health information literacy, especially pertaining to online medication information, should be studied.