JPERM

Although maximizing the effectiveness and safety of drugs is difficult if patients do not have enough understanding of medication, patients’ health literacy or medication literacy have not been carefully considered. Many previous studies have reported that inadequate health literacy is related to non-adherence to medication, poor health outcomes, and increased healthcare cost. There are some widely used tools to measure health literacy, including the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM), the Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (TOFHLA), and the Newest Vital Sign (NVS). These health literacy assessment tools have been translated into Korean and applied in the Korean population since 2005. Two approaches may be suggested to apply health literacy in pharmacoepidemiologic research; one is to measure the literacy of patients and consumers using health literacy assessment tools, and another is to assess whether media for medication information has high enough readability for potential patients to understand. Based on findings for health literacy, various policies in terms of drug risk management can be developed to improve patients’ medication literacy and to provide verbal or written information that is easy to understand at the patients’ level. (JPERM 2016;8:-18): Health literacy; Drug safety; Pharmacoepidemiology; Risk management

Keywords Health literacy, Drug safety, Pharmacoepidemiology, Risk management