"I can't even read the words on this manual, let alone my grandmother!”
The pill box is not big, and the instruction manual accounts for half of it, and the key is to know how many pills to take and when to take themI took out the manual but found that the words were small and I couldn't read it clearly, and one finger covered a lot of words.
I can't see the instructions clearly, how to take medicine?Why is the pillbox designed this way?
We can't do without medicines in our daily lives, go to the pharmacy and buy medicinesIt's really hard to figure out exactly how to take your medicine.
The packaging of the pill box looks very large, but when I buy it home, I find it insideThere wasn't much medicine, as soon as you open the package, you will see itThe instruction manual that has been folded several times, sandwiched in between is one or two plates of tablets.
Some medicines are not cheap, but there are not many pills in them, relativelyThe paper of the instruction manual is larger than the medicine box when opened, and the words on a piece of paper are dense and small.
For taking medicine, it is very prudent to think about safety, and it is not enough to only look at the dosage of the outer packaging of the medicine box, and most of the timeIt is all about how many grams or milligrams you eat.
For ** and small children,All kinds of drugs have dosage requirements, which feels more complicated.
But how do we know how much to eat?Should you always have a medicine scale at home to weigh the medicine in the case of taking medicine?
If you want to know how to eat it specifically, you will see the words above"Please read the instructions carefully and use according to the instructions or purchase and use under the guidance of a pharmacist."
As soon as I opened the manual, it was written very comprehensively, butWe, as "patients", simply don't understand it, the chemical formula will not be said,Others are also very professional.
What we are more concerned about is:Dosage, precautions, adverse reactions, etc, but the black and white words are there, and it is difficult to see clearly.
The font size of the instruction manual is very small, and one finger can cover many wordsThe words on the instructions are not as big as a grain of rice.
Young people have a hard time seeing clearly, and they need to hold a magnifying glass to see it, not to mention the elderly or special people with dyslexia.
Why is the font on the manual so small, people can't understand why they put it?
The drug instructions are undoubtedly very important, and with the instructions, pharmacists and patients can better understand the drugs.
The package insert must include all kinds of information about the drugEven how to dispose of garbage was written, in accordance with regulatory requirements,The information in the manual is becoming more and more comprehensive and detailed.
The scope of the paper in the instructions has not changed much, but more and more information content drugs have been added, and manufacturers have to keep reducing the font size.
For healthcare professionals, they can read professional information on paperThe instructions are instructions for the patient to prescribe the medication.
But it is a big problem for us who take medicine, most of these professional information we can't understand, and we can't see it clearly.
Some people will say that when you prescribe and buy medicine, the doctor will naturally explain to you how to take it and take it under the guidance of the doctor. But that's not everything.
Article 49 of the Drug Administration Law of the People's Republic of China stipulates that "the words in the labels and instructions shall be clear", and Article 6 of the "Regulations on the Administration of Drug Instructions and Labels" stipulates that "the words in the drug instructions and labels shall be clear and legible".The font size is smallerThe first thing that comes to mind is definitely this, but in terms of its actual cost, it doesIt's not cost-effectiveThe number of words in detail is already large, and if the font size is increased to the extent that people can read it,Then the number of pages in the manual must be several times more than the current one.
If the instructions are folded to become thicker, the previous pill box will definitely not fit, and the pill box will have to become largerThe entire production line has to change with it, and the corresponding cost increases.
Some enterprises have carried out reforms, and in order to ensure compliance with the norms, the instructions have been revisedProfessional information is handled separately from what the patient needs to know.
Do what the patient wants to knowzoomed in, tooLine spacing has been widened, willThe usage and dosage are more expressed in numbers.
withDigital technologyWe might as well apply it to the pharmaceutical industry. In 2020,The Shaanxi Provincial Drug Administration has put forward relevant suggestions
You can print it on the manual***, but people can scan itGet an electronic copy of the manualto carry out important information on the relevantObvious treatment of bold and black.
Consumers canZoom on your own**, and will additionally increaseSpeech-to-speech processingto help more people access information effectively.
The original intention of the manual is to let us understand clearly, the most straightforward is,Eat several times a day, before or after meals, how much to eat at one time, and whether there are any special things to pay attention to.
That's what we, as patients, do when it comes to medicationThe most concerned, can be in the to andThe outer packaging indicates how to eat itand also allow usIt's more intuitive
The problem of unclear drug instructions is the most concerning, and to summarize the above, we need to start from two aspects.
First, on the production side of the manual, try to find as many ways as possible to let people read and understand the manual. The second aspect is the pharmacy, when selling to consumers, the physician should explain and indicate the relevant matters.