복약안내문에 다빈도로 사용되는 용어에 대한 일반인들의 이해도

Laypersons’ Understanding of the Terminology Frequently Used in Written Medication Counseling Instructions

Abstract A pharmacist’s medication counseling instructions aims to ensure that the pharmacist delivers the correct message to the patient for the effective and safe medications use. Therefore, it is essential for patients to understand the terminology used by the pharmacists. Community pharmacies are using written medication counseling instructions, but the terms included in medication statements are too difficult for laypersons to understand. This study was conducted to investigate the laypersons’ levels of understanding the terms in the medication counseling instruction. A 44-items questionnaire survey was conducted on non-healthcare professional over 20 years of age. 33 words were selected from the medication instructions currently used in community pharmacies for top six drug classes most frequently prescribed in outpatient setting in 2017. The understanding level of medical terms was evaluated with a 4-point Likert scale. The average scores of understanding level of 299 respondents were 2.41 points for therapeutic category-related terms, 2.38 points for drug formulation-related terms, and 2.79 points for action/adverse reaction/uses-related terms. The terms with the highest rate of difficulty in understanding were ‘nasal decongestant’ (91.0% of respondents), followed by ‘continuous use’ (90.2%) and ‘slow-released tablet’ (89.0%). This study suggests that terms in medication counseling instructions need to be changed from the consumer’s perspective to the easier one, not from the provider’s perspective.