Study finds drug warning labels need overhaul to better capture attention and effectively convey information

July 5, 2012 in Medications

(Medical Xpress) -- Many patients seem to ignore prescription drug warning labels with instructions that are critical for safe and effective use, according to a study by a Kansas State University researcher working with scientists at Michigan State University.

Consumers, particularly older ones, often overlook prescription drug warning labels in part because the labels fail to attract attention, said Nora Bello, an assistant professor of statistics at Kansas State University. Bello helped investigate the effectiveness of prescription drug warning labels to convey to patients. She and experts in packaging and found that prescription drug warning labels fail to capture patients' attention, impairing the communication of important safety information. The research is published in .

"These findings have implications for the design of prescription drug warning labels to improve their effectiveness, particularly as the U.S. government recently started to investigate approaches to standardize the format and content of these labels to decrease medication error rates," Bello said. "Results from this study can provide insight to assist about labeling designs that are most likely to impact a wide age range of consumers."

About 15 million occur each year in the United States, and most happen at home where patients are responsible for complying with medication regimes. Prescription warning labels are intended to serve as quick reminders of the most important instructions for safe and effective to prevent injuries from medications. They can include, for example, warnings against accompanying use of the medication with alcohol or driving.

The findings show that older patients do not always pay attention to drug warning labels. The results are worrisome, Bello said, because this population is reportedly at a greater risk for dangerous medication errors given their usually more complicated drug regimes relative to younger patients.

Researchers tracked study participants' eye movements over labels on a prescription drug vial to measure attention. The participants interacted with vials under a hypothetical scenario of just having been delivered prescription medications from the pharmacy.

In the study, the eye gaze of 50 percent of participants older than 50 years of age failed to notice a warning label on prescription vials. For 22 percent of these participants, their vision did not enter the warning label area in any of the five vials they interacted with. In contrast, 90 percent of young adults between ages 20 and 29 fixated on the .

This difference was partially attributed to the age-specific dynamic of visual fixation of information between the age groups, researchers said.

The data provided a compelling case that understanding consumers' attentive behavior and how to attract their attention is crucial to developing an effective labeling standard for , researchers said.

Collaborators include Michigan State University researchers Mark Becker and Laura Bix and Michigan State University graduate student Raghav Sundar. Research was partially funded through the Center for Food and Pharmaceutical Packaging Research at Michigan State University.

Journal reference: PLoS ONE search and more info website

Provided by Kansas State University search and more info website

not rated yet  

Rank not rated yet
Relevant PhysicsForums posts

More news stories

Experts favor US approval of Merck sleeping pill (Update)

An independent panel of experts on Wednesday recommended US approval of a new Merck sleeping pill called suvorexant, but expressed concerns over the highest dosage and risks of drowsy daytime driving.

Medications created 16 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Glaxo, US partnering to develop new antibiotics

GlaxoSmithKline PLC says it's starting an unusual collaboration with the U.S. government to develop several antibiotics for both bioterrorism threats and bacterial infections resistant to current medicines.

Medications created 18 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Study finds new pneumococcal vaccine appears to be as safe as previously used vaccine

The new 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) appears to be as safe as the previous version used prior to 2010, the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7), according to a Kaiser Permanente study published ...

Medications created 23 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Succesful results in developing oral vaccine against diarrhea

The University of Gothenburg Vaccine Research Institute (GUVAX) announces successful results in a placebo controlled phase I study of an oral, inactivated Escherichia coli diarrhea vaccine.

Medications created May 22, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

New sleeping pill poised to hit US markets

An experimental sleeping pill from US drug company Merck is effective at helping people fall and stay asleep, according to reviewers at the US Food and Drug Administration, which could soon approve the new drug.

Medications created May 21, 2013 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 0


Are kids who take music lessons different from other kids?

(Medical Xpress)—Research by U of T Mississauga psychology professor Glenn Schellenberg reveals that two key personality traits – openness-to-experience and conscientiousness—predict better than IQ ...

New discovery in fight against deadly meningococcal disease

Professor Michael Jennings, Deputy Director of the Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University, was part of an international team that discovered the previously unknown pathway of how the bacterium colonizes people.

Pay attention: How we focus and concentrate

Scientists at Newcastle University have shed new light on how the brain tunes in to relevant information.

Key find for early bladder cancer treatment

Aggressive forms of bladder cancer involve the protein PODXL – a discovery that could hold the key to improved treatment, according to researchers at Lund University, Uppsala University and KTH in Sweden.

New imaging techniques used to help patients suffering from epilepsy

New techniques in imaging of brain activity developed by Jean Gotman, from McGill University's Montreal Neurological Institute, and his colleagues lead to improved treatment of patients suffering from epilepsy. The combination ...

Researchers identify networks of neurons in the brain that are disrupted in psychiatric disease

Studying the networks of connections in the brains of people affected by schizophrenia, bipolar disease or depression has allowed Dr. Peter Williamson, from Western University, to gain a better understanding of the biological ...