People who take over-the-counter (OTC) medications frequently discard the box after using the medication for the first time and rarely call a physician if they have questions or concerns about the medication.

Those are the results of research by Dr. Michael Wogalter, associate professor of psychology at North Carolina State University, and Dr. Deane B. Cheatham, a former NC State graduate student of Wogalter's. The research was presented at the 46th annual meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

The research reports that a large majority of people who use OTC medicine - around 85 percent of the 650 people surveyed - throw away the medicine's packaging box after the first use.

Wogalter says this finding indicates the importance of including critical information on the medicine's primary container label, which is usually a bottle. Moreover, it highlights the need for salient information to be included on the container itself.

Although space constraints are sometimes a factor, Wogalter says a fold-out or expandable label on the container would provide plenty of room for instructions and warnings, and would also not be thrown away as readily.

In the study's other major finding, only about one in five of those surveyed, when asked if they would contact a doctor if they had questions or concerns about an OTC product, reported a likelihood of doing so. One reason for the low number is that many people do not have access to a regular physician, Wogalter says, but those who do have regular doctors frequently don't believe that they would actually speak with a physician if they were to call.
"This is particularly disconcerting considering that directives on many OTC medications instruct the consumer to call a physician with questions," Wogalter and Cheatham state in the paper. "In fact, this directive is sometimes used in lieu of more descriptive warnings due to space constraints on the medication bottle."

Wogalter also says that more people are turning to OTC products to address medical problems, using medications that were once available by prescription only. He thinks most people have the dubious belief that OTC medications would not be available for purchase if there were any safety problems.

Wogalter and Cheatham have some suggestions to help alleviate the problem. They believe a toll-free telephone number or an Internet address with information could be included on the bottle's label. According to Wogalter, these information sources would be preferably independent of the drug companies and set up for the express purpose of answering questions about specific drugs. People might then have a higher expectation of getting the information they desire, he says, and therefore would be more likely to seek out answers to their questions.

Posted November 6, 2002

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