2024 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Designing Oral Tablets to Prevent Medication Errors: An Approach Based on Color and Shape

Research Project

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Project/Area Number	21K12556
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Review Section	Basic Section 90010:Design-related
Research Institution	Fukuoka International University of Health and Welfare (2024) Fukuoka Nursing College (2021-2023)
Principal Investigator	MIYOSHI MAKI 福岡国際医療福祉大学, 看護学部看護学科, 准教授 (00595259)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	窪田惠子福岡看護大学, 看護学部, 教授 (20309991) 庄山茂子福岡女子大学, 国際文理学部, 教授 (40259700) 青木久恵福岡看護大学, 看護学部, 教授 (70526996) 門司真由美福岡看護大学, 看護学部, 准教授 (80527002)
Project Period (FY)	2021-04-01 – 2025-03-31
Keywords	高齢者 / PTPシート / 誤服薬 / 色彩 / ピクトグラム / デザイン
Outline of Final Research Achievements	To prevent medication errors among older adults, this study focused on the color and design of press-through-pack (PTP) sheets and conducted experiments to examine the recognizability of different color and line designs. The results indicated that color differences were more easily distinguishable than line variations. The findings suggest that prescribing multiple medications with PTP sheets of similar hues or tones may increase the risk of medication errors. Furthermore, a survey was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of pictograms in preventing such errors. It was found that pictograms illustrating actual actions, simple illustrations, or those incorporating text were easy to understand. However, overall recognition of pictograms was low, and none of the existing pictograms were universally understood by participants. These findings suggest the need for further improvements in PTP sheet designs and the development of more comprehensible pictograms.
Free Research Field	デザイン学
Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements	高齢者の多剤服用による誤服薬は、生命に危険を及ぼしたり、病状を悪化させたりすることが懸念される。そこで、高齢者の誤服薬を防ぐために、認識しやすいPTPシートのデザインやピクトグラムに着目した。PTPシート色が隣接色相や類似トーンの薬を同時に複数個処方すると誤服薬の原因になることを確認した。また、ピクトグラムは、実際の行為が表現されている絵柄やシンプルな絵柄、ピクトグラム内に文字表記のあるものがわかりやすいいことを確認し、ピクトグラムの認知度向上の取り組みやピクトグラムの図案の検討の必要性を指摘した。これらの成果は、高齢者の健康や安全を守る観点から重要な学術的ならびに社会的意義を有する。