International journal of clinical pharmacy
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Review
Design and comprehensibility of over-the-counter product labels and leaflets: a narrative review.
Over-the-counter medicines must be supplied with appropriate, user-friendly medicine information to satisfactorily support consumer self-management and safe use. Product labels and written medicine information leaflets are highly accessible over-the-counter medicine information sources for consumers. Factors such as comprehensibility and design underpin the usefulness of over-the-counter labels and leaflets and should be further examined to better inform future optimisation strategies. Aim of the review To undertake an in-depth exploration of studies that have evaluated design and/or comprehensibility of over-the-counter labels and written medicine information leaflets Methods Database searches were performed using Medline, Embase, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts and PubMed. Studies exploring over-the-counter medicine label and/or leaflet comprehensibility and/or design were identified. Additional author and reference list searches were performed to identify studies which met the inclusion criteria and key terms. ⋯ A wide spectrum of consumer understanding of over-the-counter medicine labels is evident in the literature, with limited studies examining over-the-counter written medicine information leaflet comprehensibility with consumers. The application of good information design principles in over-the-counter labels and leaflets contribute to improved performance. Well-designed consumer studies are needed to ascertain and optimise over-the-counter label and leaflet performance.