Medication Guide Comprehension and Health Literacy

Abstract

Written information is often distributed with prescription medications in order to help patients understand, anticipate, and manage risks. Several factors, most significantly a low level of health literacy, prevent patients from fully comprehending this information. Particularly disturbing is that for drugs requiring medication guides, there are well-established risks that patients need to understand. Patients are often unable to identify these risks and therefore unable to participate actively in risk management. This study investigated the relationships among health literacy, functional tests of patient comprehension, and the usefulness of medication guides.