Developing and Evaluating a Drug Information Leaflet of Antidiabetics for Senior Citizens; Employing Performance-based User-testing

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: The study purpose was to develop a drug information leaflet for the elderly and to evaluate it with performance-based user-testing. METHODS: We performed a stratified randomized controlled trial. We recruited 62 elderly patients with age of 65 or above who were taking antidiabetic medications at the point of participating and excluded those who suffered illiteracy. We randomly allocated them into the intervention group with a leaflet for the elderly and the control group with a leaflet for the general public. Main outcome measures were to ‘be able to find information’ and to ‘be able to understand information.’ We measured outcome variables by employing performance-based user-testing and analyzed data to find any differences between two groups with t-tests, chi-squared tests or Fisher's exact tests accordingly. RESULTS: More participants in the intervention group understood how to store their medications than those in the control group (intervention group 93% vs. control group 70%; p=0.02). There were no significant differences in other information items between two groups. Mostly ‘being able to understand information’ was lower than ‘being able to find information.’ The gaps between two outcome variables were about 10% in the intervention group and about 18% in the control group. The lowest understanding was observed in information relating to drug names and their potential adverse events. CONCLUSION: Without providing personalized drug information, it might be hard for the elderly to improve their drug knowledge even with leaflets that were developed specifically for the elderly.