| Sumario: | Purpose More than 1/3 of the elderly take over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, and this proportion has become increasingly high in Taiwan. It is well-known that many old people suffer from chronic deterioration, because they take OTC medicines for various maladies without a doctor's prescription. Based on the problems described above, we think it is necessary to improve the text design both in drug manual instruction pamphlets and on medicine boxes to adequately clarify the side effects of drugs and their association with chronic disease. The purpose of this study is to add warning graphic symbols1 on the medicine box and on the manual instruction pamphlet in order to facilitate identification and medication safety for older adults. Method In this study, we designed two types of warning labels, which include text and graphic symbols. The experiential context insight method was adopted2 to analyze the experience behaviors of the elderly. A total of 15 elderly people were tested in this experiential context insight experiment. Results & Discussion Based on their own personal experience with medications, all 15 of the subjects expressed a need for better warning labels. Regarding the labels, graphic symbols are viewed more favorably (Figures 1 & 2). For the 15 subjects, the size and color of the label are also important aspects of the design considerations. Finally, about 4/5 of the subjects think that the pharmacist should be the initial consultant who explains the symbols on the box and provides information about whether the drug is associated with chronic disease deterioration.
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