Beyond Doctor's Orders: Health Literacy's Impact on Surface and Inferential Comprehension of Medication Instructions

Authors: Arianna Lange, Heather Sheridan

SUNY Campus: University at Albany

Presentation Type: Poster

Location: Old Union Hall

Presentation #: 20

Timeslot: Session B 10:15-11:15 AM

Abstract: While understanding healthcare instructions is critical for patient safety, patients frequently misunderstand them and report feeling discouraged by their complexity. Although some research has examined patients’ ability to comprehend healthcare instruction material, little is known about how patients make necessary inferences beyond a surface-level understanding. The present study investigates readers’ ability to comprehend both the explicitly stated surface-level content of medication usage instructions (e.g., “take twice daily”) and the implicit information that requires readers to process the instructions deeply and make inference-based decisions (e.g., inferring that “avoid sudden postural changes” means that you should not take a rigorous exercise class). Participants read hypothetical medication instruction passages paired with questions targeting either surface form or inference-level comprehension. After the reading task, participants completed a health literacy questionnaire to assess their involvement in managing their health. Participants demonstrated higher accuracy for surface-form questions, and higher composite health literacy scores were associated with better comprehension overall. Furthermore, the positive relationship with composite health literacy scores showed a marginally stronger positive relationship for surface-form than inference-level questions. These results suggest differences in how patients comprehend medication instructions at various depths of processing. These findings have important implications for improving patient comprehension and medication compliance.