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Background: Medication errors are a major health concern among the elderly causing a wide range of adverse events. Drug label misreading is one such problem that contributes to these errors. Therefore, evidence suggesting appropriate characters on drug labels is required as a useful instruction for improving understanding. Objective: To investigate the appropriate characters on drug labels for the elderly, both in reading accuracy and satisfaction dimensions. Materials and Methods: A quasi-experimental study was conducted on 56 elderly Thai patients with a mean age of 65.9±5.2 and including 26 males and 30 females. Six drug labels were provided for all participants to read, with three different fonts, which were Angsana New, Microsoft San Serif, and TH Far Kwang, and two character-sizes at 0.22 and 0.26 cm in height. Their reading voices were recorded to examine reading accuracy, with words corrected per minute (WCM). The satisfaction scores were obtained by an opinion assessment in three components, which were ease of reading, aesthetically pleasing, and overall satisfaction. Results: The results showed that Angsana New, with a size of 0.26 cm, presented the highest score in WCM (mean±SD: 148±28.3 words per minute), and was shown to have the most satisfaction score. A generalized linear mixed model revealed that a larger character size and Angsana New, with a size of 0.26 cm, were significantly associated with higher WCM (p=0.003 and 0.005, respectively), whereas increasing age was significantly associated with lower WCM (p=0.035). Conclusion: The size of 0.26 cm of Angsana New and Microsoft San Serif were appropriate for use in drug labeling for elderly Thai patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess the prevalence of potentially inappropriate medication [PIM] prescribed among elderly patients in the primary care unit of a university hospital in southern Thailand and identify the associated factors. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted retrospectively in the primary care unit of a university hospital. The medical records of all the patients aged 60 years or older that visited the primary care unit during the year of 2016 were included. PIM was identified based on the 2015 Updated Beers Criteria. The prevalence of PIM was described and the associated factors were analyzed. Results: Of 490 elderly patients, 64.1% were female and the median age was 66.3 years. The prevalence of PIM was 40.4%. The most common type of PIM was medications to avoid for many or most elderly patients (49.8%). Factors associated with PIM prescriptions were female gender, visited the PC clinic, received an increased number of medications, had some underlying disease, and presented with acute illness. Conclusion: The prevalence of PIM was high among elderly patients in the primary care unit of a university hospital in southern Thailand. This is an alarming result for a medical school. Physicians should be aware when prescribing medications to patients who have associated factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]