The British National Formulary, the authoritative source of medicines information used by doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals, now recommends that medicine labels should be improved to ensure that the wording used is better understood by patients.

The recommendations follow extensive user research carried out by Professor Theo Raynor, Professor of Pharmacy Practice at the University of Leeds, and his colleagues at Luto Research.

Professor Raynor has conducted extensive research into patient non-compliance and the important factor of misinterpretation or misunderstanding of instructions. “Most medicines”, he says, “do contain leaflets which provide detailed information for patients. However the leaflet may get lost which means that the label on the medicine plays a very important part in guiding people’s behaviour. It is vital therefore that wordings on labels are simple and straightforward”.

Listen to Professor Raynor's interview on Radio 4’s Today Programme this morning.