As part of a Health Canada committee developing Plain Language Labelling regulations for non-prescription health products, Patients for Patient Safety Canada led a joint PFPSC and CPSI initiative to survey the public on the issue. Have people had problems with the labelling of non-prescription health products?

The survey results indicate that consumers are often confused when purchasing self-care products. This raises concerns of harm: are people choosing the wrong product because of this confusion? Our survey found that:

• 29% of respondents said that they had wrongly purchased a natural health or homeopathic product, or over-the-counter drug;

• Another 29.5% said that they were not sure if they had wrongly purchased one of these products.

The most cited reasons for the wrong purchase were:

• Mixed it up with another product,

• Information about the product on the label was too small to read, or

• They were confused by, or did not understand, the information on the label.

Some examples of comments on the survey include:

• "I looked for Gravol on the drugstore shelf and all of the types of Gravol were together. When I saw Gravol ginger I thought it was Gravol with an added boost of ginger. When I got home and read the ingredients, I realized that there was not active ingredient in it. I feel I am a very health literate person, but I did not know the difference."

• "I did not realize the ingredients until I arrived home. Printing is so tiny on labels."

• "I bought a product for a yeast infection thinking it was for a Urinary Tract Infection"