Who really bothers to read them?
Medication instructions, large pieces of paper folded into 16 with the same (long) text in several languages, often remain at the bottom of the boxes because they are so tedious.
However, they are rich in information, sometimes essential to know, such as contraindications and possible adverse effects.
These instructions are provided by manufacturers to health authorities during the marketing authorization procedure.
They also include the reasons for which the medication is recommended, the precautions for use, the way of administering it, the dosage not to be exceeded, etc.
“A clear presentation of information is crucial to facilitate patients' access to important messages,” warned the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) in 2014.
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Manufacturers have gradually worked to make their instructions more accessible: easy-to-read fonts, shortened paragraphs and sentences, spacing, etc. “If the text is dense, the patient loses concentration and cannot find the information they need,” warns in particular the ANSM, which calls for “avoiding long enumerations, particularly for undesirable effects” and “favoring left-aligned texts rather than justified ones, the latter creating irregular spacing between letters”, among other recommendations.
Soon, instructions accessible on smartphones
Since 2006, manufacturers "have carried out readability tests with target groups of patients to ensure that they are able, on the one hand, to find the information (readability), on the other hand, of the understand (clarity) and, finally, put it into practice,” says Leem (Les Entreprises du medicinale).
This pharmaceutical lobby is the first to recognize the need to “make the instructions more educational”.
This year 2024 will also experience a small revolution: the instructions for use of certain medications – including some for the general public such as paracetamol and ibuprofen – will be accessible on smartphones, by scanning a QR code on the box.
The aim is to make the instructions easier to access but also to save paper.
Depending on patient feedback, this experiment “may evolve towards the elimination of the paper leaflet” in the long term, indicated the Ministry of Health in mid-December.