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Effect of Prescription Reading Education on Correct Interpretation of Medicine Instructions among Adult Patients in Nigeria

Abstract

Correct interpretation of prescription instructions is an important component of medication safety and effective treatment. Adult patients may encounter difficulties understanding prescription information such as medicine names, dosage, frequency, route of administration, duration of treatment, special instructions, and precautions. In Nigeria, differences in educational background, health literacy, language, communication with healthcare providers, and the complexity of prescription instructions may contribute to medication-use errors, including incorrect dosing, missed doses, premature discontinuation, and inappropriate medicine administration. Prescription reading education provides an opportunity to improve patients' ability to understand and correctly interpret information provided on their prescriptions. Against this background, this study investigates the effect of prescription reading education on correct interpretation of medicine instructions among adult patients in Nigeria. The study will be anchored on the Health Literacy Framework, Health Belief Model, and Social Cognitive Theory. The Health Literacy Framework emphasizes the ability of individuals to access, understand, evaluate, and apply health information, including written medication instructions. The Health Belief Model explains how perceived benefits of correctly following medicine instructions, perceived barriers, perceived risks of medication errors, and cues to action may influence patients' interpretation and use of prescription information. Social Cognitive Theory emphasizes learning through observation, practical demonstration, self-efficacy, reinforcement, and repeated practice. Collectively, these theoretical perspectives provide a suitable framework for explaining how prescription reading education may influence correct interpretation of medicine instructions among adult patients in Nigeria. The study will adopt a quantitative quasi-experimental or analytical cross-sectional research design. The study population will comprise adults aged 18 years and above receiving prescription medicines at selected public and private hospitals, primary healthcare centres, and outpatient clinics across Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique will be used to select geopolitical zones, states, local government areas, healthcare facilities, departments, and eligible patients. Prescription reading education will be assessed using indicators such as exposure to structured educational sessions, explanation of medicine names, dosage, frequency, route of administration, treatment duration, timing, special instructions, storage requirements, precautions, and common prescription abbreviations. The education may involve verbal explanations, simplified prescription examples, pictorial materials, demonstrations, teach-back methods, and individualized counselling. Correct interpretation of medicine instructions will be assessed using indicators such as accurate identification of prescribed medicine, correct interpretation of dose, correct understanding of frequency and timing, understanding of treatment duration, correct identification of route of administration, recognition of special instructions, ability to explain instructions in their own words, and accurate interpretation of sample or actual prescription instructions. Data will be collected using structured questionnaires, prescription-interpretation assessment tools, patient interviews, prescription documents, pharmacy counselling records, and relevant healthcare facility records, subject to appropriate ethical and confidentiality safeguards. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize participants' characteristics, exposure to prescription reading education, and interpretation scores. Inferential statistical techniques, including chi-square tests, t-tests, correlation analysis, and logistic or multiple regression analysis where appropriate, will be used to determine the effect of prescription reading education on correct interpretation of medicine instructions. Where a quasi-experimental design is adopted, interpretation scores before and after the educational intervention may be compared with those of a comparison group to determine changes associated with the programme. Diagnostic tests will also be conducted to assess the reliability, validity, and robustness of the findings. The study is expected to find that prescription reading education has a significant positive effect on correct interpretation of medicine instructions among adult patients in Nigeria. Patients exposed to structured prescription reading education are expected to demonstrate improved ability to identify medicines, understand prescribed doses, interpret frequency and timing, recognize treatment duration, and follow special instructions. Practical demonstrations, simplified prescription examples, pictorial materials, and teach-back techniques may improve patients' understanding and confidence in interpreting prescription information. Improved interpretation may reduce medication-use errors, support adherence to prescribed treatment, and strengthen communication between patients, pharmacists, nurses, and other healthcare providers. However, low literacy levels, language differences, complex prescriptions, limited counselling time, inadequate patient education materials, poor provider-patient communication, visual difficulties, and unfamiliar medical abbreviations may reduce the effectiveness of prescription reading education. The study therefore expects simple, patient-centred, culturally appropriate, and regularly reinforced prescription reading education to contribute significantly to improved interpretation of medicine instructions among adult patients in Nigeria. The study is expected to contribute to the literature on prescription reading education, medication literacy, health literacy, medication safety, medicine-use practices, patient education, pharmaceutical care, and public health in Nigeria. The findings will provide useful information to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, state ministries of health, hospitals, primary healthcare facilities, pharmacists, physicians, nurses, health educators, pharmaceutical organizations, patient-safety committees, development partners, and policymakers regarding strategies for improving patients' understanding of prescription instructions. The study will also provide evidence-based recommendations for integrating prescription reading education into routine medication counselling, promoting simplified and standardized prescription instructions, reducing unnecessary abbreviations, strengthening pharmacist-led patient education, using pictorial and local-language materials, and incorporating teach-back methods into medication counselling across Nigerian healthcare facilities.

Keywords: Prescription reading education, medicine instructions, correct interpretation, adult patients, medication literacy, health literacy, medication safety, patient education, pharmaceutical care, Nigeria, public health.