The readability of medicine label amongst senior citizen / Irwan Zakaria

Preliminary study have proved that elderly person have a problem in reading their
prescription medication labels. Questionnaire surveys were conducted in five local clinics
involving 200 respondents. Targeted respondents were individual with low vision; whose
are unable to read printed materials at a normal viewing distance, without reading glasses
or contact lenses. Respondent's average age were between 45 - 65 years old. Results from
questionnaire conducted revealed that most respondents have difficulties in reading
existing medication labels. Thus, new prescription medication label was proposed. The new
proposed prescription medicine label employs larger print fonts (14 point), incorporates
cautionary and expiry date. Generic medicine name was also included and the uses of the
medicine were printed underneath. Most consumers prefer the new prescription medicine
label with larger font size when compared to the current prescription medicine label. The
evaluation of the new label has shown that prescription medicine label with larger font size
can be introduced into local clinics with a minimum disruption to workflow.