Drug doses lost in translation

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Health illiteracy is the “number one reason” behind patient medication errors.

Poor levels of health literacy are one of the leading threats to the region's health, a prominent pharmacist has warned.

Hashem A Tarifi, the head of pharmacy for Tawam Hospital, Al Ain, has said that rampant health illiteracy - the ability to read, understand and respond to health information; is one of biggest drivers behind patient medication errors and poor prescription compliance.

"The number one reason in this region, why we fail to get expected outcomes on patients, why they are not compliant with their medications, is largely because they don't have the necessary level of healthcare knowledge," he said. "We, as healthcare providers, are not doing enough."

Tarifi was speaking on the sidelines of the launch of Tawam Hospital's five-day medication safety campaign, held to raise awareness of drug safety among both patients and the country's healthcare providers.

Now in its third year, the campaign includes an outreach service that invites members of the public to sit down with pharmacists and review their medication. Patients are "rarely educated to the level we would hope for," Tarifi said." "The issue is bigger than many healthcare providers think."

The high number of expatriate healthcare workers in the Middle East has seen English become the lingua franca of most hospitals. Many Arab nationals, particularly in Saudi, are not fluent in English, so there are concerns that essential drug information may be misunderstood.

Bilingual labelling for medications is unlikely to alleviate the problem, as a recent paper by the Arab League Educational Cultural and Scientific Organisation reported that almost one in three people in the Arab world is illiterate.

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