Piyush Mittal, Cheng Jiaxin, Suresh Shanmugham, Palanisamy Sivanandy and Rajesh Venkataraman
International Medical University, Malaysia
Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Pharma Care Health Sys
Access to accurate and sufficient information is crucial if OTC medications are to be used safely and effectively without any supervision from healthcare professional. Product label and patient information leaflet play a crucial role in conveying information about the medications to the consumers. Several studies had shown that insufficient information was provided for OTC medications in India and Germany. This study was aimed to compare relevant safety information stated on OTC medications used for cough and cold available in Malaysia against local and/or international guidelines. A cross sectional, observational study was carried out to compare the relevant safety information stated on the OTC medications used for cough and cold against Malaysian and/or international guidelines. Selected product labels and patient information leaflets were collected and analysed. Descriptive statistics was applied to the data. SPSS version 18.0 was used to analyse the data. 96.8% of the analysed product met all labelling requirements for product label. Special labelling was included in 91.6% of the product containing specific substances. Products manufactured in United States, Singapore and European Union countries were identified. Additional parameters were found in guidelines from United States, Singapore and European Union countries. Majority of the parameters were included in all analysed product labels. Warning on �keep the medicine out of reach of children� was provided in all analysed labels. Information on storage condition was missing in some product labels. The relevant safety information stated on OTC medications used for cough and cold is need to be refined for safe and effective use.
Piyush Mittal has completed his PhD from Kumaun University, India. He is Experiential Learning Coordinator for School of Pharmacy, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His area of expertise is in patient safety, drug interaction studies, drug utilization studies and diabetes research. He has presented/published more than 20 papers in reputed journals/conferences nationally and internationally.
Email: Piyush_mittal@imu.edu.my
