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Pires C, Martins F, Cavaco A, Vigário M. Automatic Quantification of Abbreviations in Medicine Package Leaflets and Their Comprehension Assessment. International Journal of E-Health and Medical Communications 2017. [DOI: 10.4018/ijehmc.2017040104] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Medication errors occur as a consequence of misunderstandings with abbreviations and symbols (A&S). According to pharmaceutical regulations, A&S should be avoided in medicine package leaflets (PLs). Using a sample of 531 Portuguese PLs, this study aims at: quantifying A&S in PLs, comparing how A&S were distributed, identifying non-recommended units of measure, checking whether the full meaning of abbreviations was presented, and determining educated peoples' interpretation of A&S. A computational tool was used to identify A&S. Participants' comprehension was evaluated with a questionnaire. Overall, 828 different A&S were identified. PLs of prescribing medicines contained a significantly higher proportion of A&S than PLs of over-the-counter medicines (chi-square = 13.4; p = 0.004). A&S with their meaning not fully described and units of measure with a non-recommended format were identified. Only 9.9% of the questionnaire answers were correct. Portuguese PLs may need to be revised. The software used is appropriate to checking A&S in PLs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carla Pires
- Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Fernando Martins
- School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Afonso Cavaco
- Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Marina Vigário
- School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
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