Construction of evaluation system for the readability of drug instructions in China
OBJECTIVE To develop the evaluation system for the readability of drug instructions based on Chinese patient needs,and to provide scientific evidence for improving the readability of drug instructions in China.METHODS The literature review and expert consultation were adopted to establish the evaluation index system for the readability of drug instructions.Then,by the analytic hierarchy process,the index weight in the evaluation system was determined,and the evaluation system for the readability of drug instructions was established.Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation was used to test the evaluation system,taking drug instruction of Dexamethasone acetate cream as an example.RESULTS The evaluation system for the readability of drug instructions was established with 5 primary criteria such as text expression,numerical application,content design,behavioral suggestions,and layout design,as well as 17 sub-criteria such as easy-to-understand words and appropriately long sentences.The reliability and validity tests met the requirements.The result of 100 respondents evaluating the readability of the drug instructions of Dexamethasone acetate cream showed that the readability of drug instructions was scored as good as 4.24.CONCLUSIONS Established evaluation system for the readability of drug instructions in the study can be used to evaluate the quality and readability of drug instructions in China.
drug instructionsreadabilityevaluation systemanalytic hierarchy processfuzzy comprehensive evaluation method