Improving medicine usage through patient information leaflets in India

The impact of patient information leaflets (PILs) was measured in an outpatient department of a large tertiary care public health facility in India. Patients were allocated to control (114) or intervention group (118). Patients in the intervention group received PILs. The primary indicators [mean +/- standard deviation (SD)] improved significantly in the intervention group compared with the control group (15.7 +/- 7.3 versus 12.2 +/- 5.4). A three-fold (P < 0.01) increase in the awareness of the supplementary scores was observed in the intervention group (9.5 +/- 5.2 versus 3.3 +/- 2.7) compared with the control group (3.5 +/- 2.8 versus 3.5 +/- 2.8). Confounding variables, viz. age, sex, literacy level, did not influence the patients' knowledge. When the number of drugs prescribed increased, the patient's knowledge decreased significantly (P < 0.0001). PILs provided to the patients by the pharmacist significantly improved knowledge about medication, and improved compliance at home.