Abstract
Objective: Written medicine information is essential to support spoken information from pharmacists, but must be fit-for-purpose. This study applied "user testing" to the booklet supplied to UK patients taking anticoagulant medicines.
Methods: "User testing" uses mixed-methods, applied iteratively, to assess document performance - can people find and understand key points of information through a questionnaire and short semi-structured interview. The booklet was tested in 3 rounds of 10 people. After each round it was revised according to participants' responses, and re-tested.
Results: The first round questionnaire identified problems with 6/18 information points (booklet purpose; other information: what affected daily doses; effect of ibuprofen; tablet colour; drinking alcohol); interviews raised further issues. The booklet was revised and, in the second testing round, one problem identified (changing doses of other medicines); the interviews raised fewer issues. After further re-wording and re-design, a third round showed all questions found and understood by at least 8/10 participants.
Conclusion: User testing assesses whether people can find and understand key information and can be applied using small numbers of participants. Application to medicine information can markedly improve performance.
Practice implications: Information producers should consider user testing to ensure documents are 'fit for purpose' in informing patients. Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 404-410 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Patient Education and Counseling |
| Volume | 83 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2011 |
Keywords
- Patient information
- Readability
- Testing
- Anticoagulant
- MEDICATION LITERACY
- WARFARIN
- TRIAL