Situation analysis of drug product information provision in Yangon and review on consumer drug information guidelines across countries

Abstract

The appropriate drug use and successful treatment relies heavily on how patients administer medicines by themselves and thus healthcare knowledge and drug information become crucial for them. Firstly, content analysis was conducted to evaluate drug product information attached with the 30 drug samples of three drug classes. To evaluate written and verbal drug information, standardized simulated patient survey was conducted by using Mefenamic Acid provided in community pharmacies around Yangon. In the second step of this study, targeted literature review was performed to identify and compare different regulations of PILs and PIL development guidelines in terms of contents, designs and user testing across various countries. The content analysis of 30 proxy drug products showed that more than 80% provided information in English, both on carton boxes and in leaflets. The majority of the leaflets (87%) were only intended for healthcare professionals. The survey in Yangon found that most dispensers did not ask patients about their history for the appropriateness of the drugs whereas more than 95% of them provided verbal drug information. There was a statistically significant difference in mean scores of written drug information provided by pharmacists and non-pharmacists. It was concluded that Myanmar consumers did not get enough drug information from the products and dispensers and thus there should be implementation of PILs for patient’s safe use of drugs. The targeted literature review resulted in 12 PILs guidelines and there had been similar contents and designs among countries. But there were only 5 guidelines that mentioned about user testing of PILs. Overall, it was suggested that UK guideline was a suitable and reliable guideline to use as a reference to develop PILs.