Patient Comprehension of Medication Guides for Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Medications

Purpose:This study assessed patients’ comprehension of the Advair and Serevent medication guides (MGs) and MG reading behaviors with the goal to improve risk communication.Methods:After reading their assigned MGs, 452 adults with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease participated in structured interviews to assess comprehension of safety risks in the Advair MG (asthma, n = 150; chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, n = 153) and Serevent MG (asthma, n = 149). Generalized estimating equations for correlated binary data were used to identify factors associated with correct responses.Results:For 10 of 12 individual risk questions, ≥75% of patients reported correct responses. After adjusting for patient characteristics, health literacy was significantly associated with correct responses (odds ratio = 1.03, 95% confidence interval = 1.02-1.05 per 1-point increase in the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine). MG reading behaviors were inconsistent, with many patients reading MGs only once (40%...