Effects of a National Health Education Program on the Medication Knowledge of the Public in Taiwan

Abstract

A national education program facilitated by pharmacists can improve the medication knowledge of the participants. Pharmacists should be encouraged to play a proactive role in large-scale health education programs.

Prevalence and predictors of inadequate patient medication knowledge

“…Physicians, pharmacists and nurses are well placed to use these indicators as a tool for screening or detecting medication knowledge problems and address them during their early interaction with the patient. It is worthwhile pointing out that although age has been reported to be one of the most correlated factors associated with a lack of PMK in the literature, no correlation was found in our analysis. While similar results were obtained in our crude analysis, no association was identified in the multivariate model.…”

Conceptualization, Development and Psychometric Evaluations of a New Medication-Related Health Literacy Instrument: The Chinese Medication Literacy Measurement

“…Accordingly, the ChMLM, as the construct of interest, was proposed to encompass the following four sections related to medication information presented in medication labels, package inserts, or statements on pharmaceutical products and dietary supplements ( Figure 1 ): vocabulary of medications, OTC labels, prescription (Rx) labels, and dietary supplement (DS) commercial advertisements. While the developed items were assumed to assess the common six literacy-related domains (i.e., literacy, numeracy, information-seeking, decision-making, evaluation, application), ten, seven, five, and three items were initially generated for the aforementioned four sections, respectively ( Figure 2 ) by adapting previously validated medication-related literacy measures obtained from a literature review by one of the authors (HWL) [ 13 , 39 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 ].…”

Public Health Campaigns and Medicine Use Awareness: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Three studies [25] [26] [21] focused on general application of knowledge on the awareness of participant's medication as well as the associated risks of the medication and the need to seek information from professionals. While the grey literature similarly, reported the focus on medication adherence [29] [33], and how to promote rational use of medication [31] [32].…”

“…In three of the studies the interventions were conducted in a community pharmacy, [21] [23] [29], two in a clinic [20] [24], another two in a community university [25] [26] and one was undertaken in a hospital [30]. The remaining studies used a sample of the general public for their campaign.…”

“…Free mugs, and pens [20] Health statistically significant increase, in awareness of the public in regards to medication adherence [23], medication knowledge of the patients [30], improved knowledge of antibiotics in regards to missing doses, not completing a treatment, using leftover medications and excessive use of antibiotics, which can lead to increased resistance [27]. Individuals taking apart in educational games [21] and educational intervention [25] [26] were substantially more likely to seek advice from pharmacists [21] and significant increase in medication knowledge was observed [25] [26].…”