Dowse, R., & Ehlers, M. (2005). Medicine labels incorporating pictograms: do they influence understanding and adherence? Patient education and counseling, 58(1), 63-70.

Dowse, R.; Ehlers, M.

2005

Dowse, R., & Ehlers, M. (2005). Medicine labels incorporating pictograms: do they influence understanding and adherence? Patient education and counseling, 58(1), 63-70.

The objective was to determine the influence of medicine labels incorporating pictograms on the understanding of instructions and on adherence. Eighty-seven Xhosa participants attending an outpatient clinic who had been prescribed a short course of antibiotics were randomly allocated to either a control group (41 participants given text-only labels), or an experimental group (46 participants given text + pictogram labels). All participants had a maximum of 10 years of formal schooling. Follow-up home visits were conducted after 3–5 days to assess understanding of instructions and to evaluate adherence. A high adherence of greater than 90% was found for 54% of the experimental group, compared with only 2% of the control group. Average percentages for understanding in the control and experimental groups were 70 and 95%, respectively, and average adherence was 72 and 90%, respectively. The presence of pictograms was found to contribute positively to both understanding of instructions and adherence.

The use of pictorial aids enhances patients’ understanding of how they should take their medications, particularly when pictures are used in combination with written or oral instructions.

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