Patient knowledge and prescription of ulcer healing drugs in medical inpatients.

If patients on ulcer healing drugs are ill-informed about their medication or diagnosis their lack of knowledge may prejudice them from receiving potentially beneficial treatment, such as thrombolytic therapy, because of concern about upper gastrointestinal side effects. Furthermore because ulcer healing drugs are safe and effective there is a tendency to prescribe these drugs inappropriately. We therefore assessed patients' knowledge about their ulcer healing drugs and whether the prescriptions were appropriate or not. Consecutive patients on ulcer healing drugs admitted as emergencies to the general medical take-in underwent a structured interview designed to assess knowledge of drugs prescribed prior to admission. Patient responses (fully correct, partially correct or incorrect) and appropriateness (appropriate, possibly appropriate or inappropriate) of the prescriptions were graded by reference to information obtained from hospital notes and/or general practitioner. Seventy-nine out of a total of 537 patients (15%) were on ulcer healing drugs. Mean age was 64 years (range 26-91). Fifty-five (70%) of these patients could be analysed for correctness and 62 (78%) for the appropriateness. Patients gave an incorrect indication for 18% of ulcer healing drugs but only for 10% of non-ulcer healing drugs (P < 0.05). Factors associated with a poorer knowledge of drugs overall, were increasing age and impaired mental test score but not the number of drugs the patient was taking. The trends were similar for ulcer healing drugs alone. Sixteen out of 62 (26%, 95% CI 16-39%) prescriptions for ulcer healing drugs were deemed inappropriate. Our findings demonstrate a need for greater attention to patient education about drugs, especially ulcer healing drugs.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)