Project lead: Research institution

• Civil Society Organisation
• Volunteers

How collaboration worked: The project is funded by the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Fund of the Ministry of Education of China and the Humanities and Social Sciences Planning Fund of Guangdong Province of China. The funds are managed by the Finance Department of Guangdong University of Technology.

Older people’s involvement: Older people were involved in the age-friendly practice at multiple or all stages

Details on older people’s involvement: During the research process, through behavioral observation, in-depth interviews, questionnaire surveys and experimental tests, older people demand level for information functions was clarified, and their preference for medication information and the understandability of drug pictograms were determined. Older people participated in the design process many times, provided improvement suggestions, and helped researchers iteratively optimize the design plan.

Has the impact of this age-friendly practice been analysed: Yes

Was the impact positive or negative:
Positive

Please share with us what you found in detail:
The final design scheme supplemented the content related to drug information, such as the type and quantity of drugs, so that older people can check the information during the drug collection stage, effectively avoiding the risk of taking the wrong drug or missing the drug. At the same time, the design of the time module was improved, and different time periods such as breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime were distinguished by color, so that the open people can identify them more clearly when using them. The design of the medication guide sheet not only meets the basic function of checking drug information, but also further expands the usage scenarios. The elderly can post it at home as a reminder to help them better plan their time. In addition, it also solves the problem of easy loss of guidance labels and only one box of labels for multiple boxes of the same drug, which improves the convenience of use. After considering the printing cost of the hospital, we still provide two options: color and black and white to meet different scenarios and needs.

Feedback:
Most of the older people approved of the design of the medication guidance labels and instruction sheets, and they felt respected. Some of them were positive and wanted to try to learn about the new medication guidance model, but some of them showed a low willingness to participate when they were surveyed. They were resistant to learning to use mobile medication apps and thought it was too troublesome. Researchers need to gain the trust of the older people first, and patiently guide them to master the usage methods, and gradually guide them to cooperate with the research. In the end, the design results will be displayed through paper prints and prototypes, and tested in simulated medication scenarios in an environment familiar to the elderly.

Expansion plans:
Yes, at present, my country’s “Opinions on Strengthening Pharmaceutical Management in Medical Institutions to Promote Rational Use of Medicines” and the National Health Commission both advocate the use of information tools to provide better medical services for patients. In response to the policy, more and more hospitals have begun to work on improving the existing medication guidance model. In this context, this project plans to cooperate with the outpatient pharmacy of the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Tianhe District, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province and the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University in Yuexiu District to test and verify the design results in a real environment, so as to timely discover and solve potential problems and improve the practicality and effectiveness of the medication guidance service system.

Reflections:
In the process of in-depth research on the daily medication habits of older people researchers observed that although their acceptance of mobile phones has gradually increased, there are still significant differences in their cultural literacy, making mobile phones far less popular than traditional print media. In the daily lives of the elderly, calendars, alarm clocks, refrigerators, etc. are familiar and dependent items. In future designs, we can try to combine print with the daily habits of the older people, such as using printed calendars or reminder cards to help them remember the time and dosage of medication, so as to help them manage medication more effectively. In addition, researchers also noticed that many elderly people with chronic diseases need to regularly measure health indicators such as blood pressure and blood sugar after taking medication, and record them. In order to improve their medication safety and health management level, the future design direction can try to integrate medication with health testing, so that doctors can adjust medication plans according to actual conditions, thereby improving the pertinence and safety of medication.

Challenges:
First, since the medication instruction label is directly attached to the drug packaging, it is difficult to display all key information in detail due to the size limitation. For older people, they need a larger font size to ensure that they can easily read and understand the content on the label, which makes it extremely difficult to fully present the information in a limited space. To address this issue, this project needs to determine the commonly used label size, conduct information readability tests on medication instruction labels for the elderly, use the test results to customize differentiated information content for them, and combine information design principles to ensure that important information can be highlighted. The design is continuously iterated in combination with the suggestions of older people. Secondly, in health communication, incorporating visual content in the form of pictograms can improve the elderly’s understanding of drug information, but it may also increase the burden of understanding for the elderly. To address this issue, this project needs to conduct a comprehensibility test of drug pictograms for the elderly, use the test conclusions and the three-part construction theory to redesign the easily confusing USP pictograms, and invite the elderly and pharmacists to participate in the design process, and ultimately ensure that all drug pictograms meet ANSI standards. Finally, the existing outpatient medication guidance lacks systematic thinking in the medication context. The elderly need a targeted medication guidance platform to integrate and personalize information to establish communication with the hospital. To address this issue, this project conducted in-depth user research on the elderly, introduced service design thinking, and combined system diagrams, story scenario construction, service blueprints and other tools to build an elderly medication guidance information service system, optimize information flow, service flow and drug flow, achieve efficient interaction between medical institutions and elderly patients, and ultimately determine information touchpoints and system functions.