Putting words into action: A simple focused education improves prescription label comprehension and functional health literacy

Objectives: To assess the effectiveness of an educational intervention on prescription (Rx) label comprehension and functional health literacy (FHL) in older adults. Outcomes were compared between current and redesigned Rx labels. Additional objectives were to examine the correlation between 2 outcome measures and to determine the characterizing variables that are predictors for the outcome measures.

Setting: Southern California, January 2013 to March 2015.

Practice description: Older adults (>55 y) taking 2 or more Rx medications daily were recruited at senior and community centers by a trained data collection team.

Practice innovation: The validated Modified LaRue Tool (MLT) tested Rx label comprehension before and after a short, focused educational intervention and correlated it with FHL.

Interventions: A simple one-on-one education provided by student pharmacists that was focused on critical elements of an Rx label.

Evaluation: Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (STOFHLA) and MLT scores of all current and redesigned label participants at baseline and follow-up.

Results: Participants using redesigned Rx labels (n = 90) showed significantly higher MLT scores than with current Rx labels (n = 28) both before (23.0 ± 2.3 vs. 21.0 ± 2.4; P <0.001) and after educational intervention (23.8 ± 1.7 vs. 22.1 ± 3.1; P <0.001). With the use of analysis of covariance, intervention participants using redesigned label (n = 48) showed significant improvement in both MLT (23.1 ± 2.0 to 24.3 ± 1.0; P <0.001) and STOFHLA (29.8 ± 7.5 to 31.5 ± 5.7; P = 0.011) scores, whereas intervention participants using current Rx label (n = 16) did not show significant improvement in either MLT (P = 0.530) or STOFHLA (P = 0.215) scores. Effect size of intervention (redesigned label) was 0.77, indicating practical significance. MLT and STOFHLA scores were significantly correlated with each other, and age and education level were common significant predictors for both outcomes.

Conclusion: Older adults using redesigned Rx labels showed improved Rx label comprehension and FHL after educational intervention, as well as higher comprehension compared with those using current Rx labels. Use of a redesigned Rx label and a simple educational intervention should be encouraged to improve Rx label comprehension and FHL.