Asa Auta 
,
David Shalkur,
Samuel B Banwat,
Danlami W Dayom
For correspondence:- Asa Auta Email: asaauta@yahoo.com Tel:+2348030846692
Received: 18 December 2010 Accepted: 16 September 2011 Published: 23 October 2011
Citation: Auta A, Shalkur D, Banwat SB, Dayom DW. Readability of Malaria Medicine Information Leaflets in Nigeria. Trop J Pharm Res 2011; 10(5):631-635 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v10i5.12
© 2011 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..
Purpose: To assess the readability of malaria medicines information leaflets available in Nigeria.
Methods: Fourty five leaflets were assessed using the Simplified Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) readability test and by examining them for paper type, font size type, use of symbols and pictograms, and bilingual information.
Results: The SMOG readability data revealed that the mean United State reading grade level for malaria medicines information leaflets available in Nigeria was 13.69 ± 1.70. This value is equivalent to a tertiary level of education in Nigeria. The study also revealed that 6.7 % of the leaflets were glossy; 6.7 % contained symbols and pictograms; 42.2 % of the leaflets had a font type size < 8; and only 2.2 % of the leaflets were produced in both English language and one of the major local languages of Nigeria.
Conclusion: Malaria medicine information leaflets available in the Nigerian market are not readable to the majority of the population. There is need for pharmaceutical companies to produce readable medicine information leaflets.
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