Table 1

Characteristics of included studies

Study	Design	Inclusion Criteria (patient characteristics)	Intervention	Control	Duration of study (days or months)	Mean age (years)	Sample size
Study	Design	Inclusion Criteria (patient characteristics)	Intervention	Control	Duration of study (days or months)	Mean age (years)	Intervention	Control
Atkin et al, Australia9	Quasi	Elderly patients attending GP clinic, taking at least three medications	Given Medication Record Card and asked to bring it to all medical consultations for updating; after each GP consultation visited by pharmacist; additionally asked to bring currently used medications to each GP consultation (reminder posted/telephoned)	Given Medication Record Card and asked by their doctor to bring it to all subsequent medical consultations for updating; after each GP consultation visited by pharmacist	12 months	Median 75	104	102
Connock et al, UK10	Systematic review	RCTs where intervention was near-patient testing, patient self-testing or patient self-management of oral anticoagulant therapy versus a comparator of routine anticoagulation clinics	Self-testing (n=5) Self-management(n=9) Both (n=1)	Primary care/family doctor management (n=6) Specialised clinic (n=7) Both (n=2)	Range from 2 to >24 months	Range from 42 to 75	16 trials 2231	16 trials 2052
Fisher et al, USA11	Quasi	Out patients receiving a new prescription for oral antibiotics or tricyclic antidepressants	Patient-generated reports (via telephone) of adverse clinical events	Staff-generated reports	14 days	NR	2705	1109
Kennedy, USA12	Experimental	Patients 70 years or over (English speaking) admitted from non-institutionalised setting to a medical-surgical unit and prescribed at least one medication at time of discharge	Home Medication Behaviour Programme: individualised teaching plan delivered by nurse prior to discharge	Usual care: staff nurse assessment	1 month	77/75	32	33
Kim and Grier, USA13	Experimental	Elderly inpatients with a chronic disease requiring a prescription for a diuretic, antihypertensive or digitalis drug	Medication instruction (audiotape plus written) at Normal pace Slow pace	No medication instruction	1 day	77	15 + 15	15
Ley et al, UK14	Experimental	Psychiatric outpatients requiring tranquillisers or antidepressant	Medication information leaflets which differed in reading level: Easy Moderate Difficult	Normal procedure	NR	NR	40 + 40 + 40	40
McKellar and Rutland-Brown, Nepal15	Experimental	Illiterate hospital outpatients prescribed at least one medication	Medication dose counselling from Community Medical Auxiliary On the Job Trainees	No intervention	Immediately following intervention	NR	50	50
McMahon et al, USA16	Experimental	Parents attending health centre with children <4 years of age diagnosed as having otitis media and placed on an antibiotic suspension	Dosing instructions and demonstration plus: Syringe Syringe with correct dose marked	Dosing instruction only	Immediately following intervention	NR	30 + 30	30
Neafsey et al, USA17	Experimental	Elderly people attending senior centre and able to perform activities of daily living, answer six of 10 items on the Short Portable mental Status Questionnaire, have a reading comprehension score of at least grade 6, be living independently and have visual acuity of at least 20/100 with corrective lenses	Personal Education Programme about potential drug interactions delivered by interactive computer program plus medication information booklet, or booklet only	NR	28 days	74	33 + 33	32
Pereles et al, Canada18	Experimental	Elderly hospital inpatients with plan to return to community living	Self-medication programme; three-stage programme where patient is given increasing responsibility for administration of medications	Standard care, medications administered by nursing staff	40 days	80	51	56
Punekar, USA19	Experimental	Member of drug benefit plan with at least one prescription filled in the 3 months	Brochure containing tips about medication and list of questions to ask healthcare professional, plus wallet card containing list of questions to ask healthcare professional and space for patients to record personal medical data	NR	42 days	NR	744	735
Schnipper et al, USA20	Experimental	English speaking inpatients on general medicine wards who were being discharged home	Pharmacist counselling about medication at discharge and follow-up telephone call	Usual care: routine review of medication by ward-based pharmacist	30 days	58	92	84
Van Haecht et al, Belgium21t	Experimental	Patients attending GP with acute locomotor injury requiring non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs	Patient package insert using explicit headings, lay terminology and simple syntax	Traditional insert	7 days	38	161	156
Varkey et al, USA22	Quasi	Adults visiting primary care clinic	Multifaceted intervention for patient and provider; patient-level interventions: posted reminder to bring all medications to clinic visit and verification/correction of medication list in electronic medical record	Usual care: medication history obtained from patient by provider and documented in electronic medical record	NR	50/54	53	57
Weingart et al, USA23	Experimental	Adult medical inpatients	Given copy of current medication list with glossary of common medical terms (updated every 3 days) plus one page education guide to medication safety	One page education guide to medication safety	1053 patient-days at risk	58/62	107	102

NR, not reported.