How do patients read, understand and use prescription labels? An exploratory study examining patient and pharmacist perspectives

Objectives  The aim of the study was to investigate ease of reading, understanding and usefulness of prescription labels in a real-world setting from patients’ and pharmacists’ perspectives. Methods  A prospective, cross-sectional, exploratory study was conducted by interviewing 179 patients and 40 pharmacists in selected community pharmacies. Key findings  The average age of patients was 55 years, 65% were females, and 56.4% had a high-school education or more. Pharmacists’ mean age was 40.4 years with 12.8 years of experience. Self-reported ease of reading and understanding was rated as very or somewhat easy by 97.8 and 97.2%, respectively. Most of the patients correctly read (91.6%) and interpreted (89.4%) the label. A majority (90.5%) of patients found the label somewhat or very useful. About half of the pharmacist sample believed patients had difficulty reading or understanding the labels. Conclusions  This study, conducted with a sample that approximated the US population in level of education, found that prescription labels were reported to be useful and easy to read and understand. These results deviated from previous studies that were conducted in specific populations. Current prescription labels are useful and easy to read and understand by those who have college or higher education but improvements may be needed for specific vulnerable populations.