Design, development, and evaluation of visual aids for communicating prescription drug instructions to nonliterate patients in rural Cameroon

Abstract

In this study, culturally sensitive visual aids designed to help convey drug information to nonliterate female adults who had a prescription for a solid oral dosage form of antibiotic medications were developed and evaluated. The researchers conceptualized the educational messages while a local artist produced the visual aids. Seventy-eight female ambulatory patients were evaluated for comprehension and compliance with antibiotic prescription instructions. The study was conducted in three health centers in Cameroon, West Africa and followed a pre-test, post-test, and follow-up format for three groups: two experimental, and one control. All participants were randomly assigned to either experimental or control groups, 26 patients to each group. Subjects in the experimental groups received visual aids alone or visual aids plus an Advanced Organizer. A comparison of the three groups showed that subjects in the experimental groups scored significantly higher than the control group in both the comprehension and compliance measures.

Medicine labels incorporating pictograms: do they influence understanding and adherence?

“…These findings support those of Ngoh and Shepherd [37] who reported significantly higher comprehension and adherence measures in the patient group that received visual aids.…”

“…This higher rate may be partially explained by the fact that the study only included participants on short-term therapy, and they received more attention and counselling than they normally would have in a standard public health outpatient clinic. In a similar study conducted in rural Cameroon on low-literate patients, the mean adherence rate to a short course of antibiotics was found to be even higher at 87% [37].…”

Development of an illustrated medication schedule as a low-literacy patient education tool

“…However, when applying pictorial images cross-culturally, it is important to pilot test the images to ensure that they are easily interpreted and culturally appropriate. Groups may misinterpret pictorial materials which do not coincide with culturally specific patterns of medication use [32,38,[52][53][54], or which are not accompanied by an explanation [36,55].…”

Use of a Pictographic Diagram to Decrease Parent Dosing Errors With Infant Acetaminophen: A Health Literacy Perspective

“…Pictorial-enhanced written materials have been shown to improve comprehension and adherence, [9][10][11][12][13] particularly for those with low literacy skills. [14][15][16][17] Few studies, however, have examined pictographic strategies to reduce medication errors in children.…”