Objective: To compare drug adherence with or without pharmaceutical pictograms in the elderly with chronic diseases.

Materials and Methods: The present study was a randomized controlled trial conducted between April 2019 and June 2019 at a primary health care center in Hat Yai, Songkhla, Thailand. The elderly patients with chronic diseases were randomly allocated to the experimental group (n=25) and the control group (n=25). The experimental group received pictogram labels, text labels, and verbal information on the consumption of medications from the pharmacist. The control group received text labels and verbal information from the pharmacist. Both groups received follow-up home visits two weeks later.

Results: The present study results showed that medication adherence using pill counts in the experimental group was significantly higher than in the control group. The median medication adherence scores from pill counts was (interquartile range, IQR) 100 (100, 100) versus 95.56 (90.25, 100), respectively, p=0.011. The medication adherence with the medication taking behavior measure for Thai patients (MTB-Thai) significantly increased in the experimental group (100.0%) compared with the control group (45.8%) (p=0.0002).

Conclusion: The present study showed that medication adherence is greatly improved when the medication instruction is supplemented with pictograms. Therefore, medication should include pictograms on labels to better convey medical instructions to elderly patients with chronic diseases.