RESEARCH-BASED DEVELOPMENT OF CONSUMER DRUG INFORMATION PAMPHLET AT TRIBHUVAN UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITAL IN NEPAL

Considering the generally low priority given to educating consumers in Nepal and also as a part of its commitment towards consumer awareness, the Drug Information Unit of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) developed and distributed a consumer education pamphlet on basic do's and don'ts about medicines. The methodology of the development of this pamphlet included: (1) a questionnaire interview of visitors (n=604) of patients admitted to TUTH to find out the existing level of knowledge on basic facts about medicines, (2) development of a draft pamphlet, mainly based on the findings of this baseline survey, (3) pretesting of the draft pamphlet on patients’ visitors (n=614) at TUTH and subject experts (n=13) to get their comments and suggestions on the text, language, drawings and presentation, and (4) revision of the pamphlet based on the pretest and its final printing. The present work thus represents a research-based approach to the development of public education material. Key Words: Rational drug use; public education; consumer awareness; drug information pamphlet; Nepal.