LIST FORMATS IMPROVE MEDICATION INSTRUCTIONS FOR OLDER ADULTS

Abstract

Do older adults better understand and remember medication instructions when they are presented in more explicit formats? List instructions should help patients understand how to take their medication and serve as a guide for pharmacists’ consultations with their patients. In three experiments, analyses of variance were performed with medication instruction format—categorized list, simple list, or paragraph—as a repeated measure. Analyses in Experiments 2 and 3 also included age and education level as between‐groups variables. Medication instructions were more effective when formatted as a list than when formatted as a paragraph. Subjects preferred the categorized list to the simple list and preferred both list formats to the paragraph (Experiment 1). They answered questions about both list instructions more quickly than they answered questions about the paragraph (Experiment 2), and they recalled more information from the simple list than from the other instructions because they were able to read more of this list during the study period (Experiment 3). Subjects were also aware of the benefits of list instructions for comprehension of and memory for medication information. The results suggest that medication instructions organized as a list help older adults understand how to take their medication and may motivate them to use these instructions as a guide to adherence. List instructions may also help structure the pharmacist consultation that is now federally mandated for many patients.