The Role of Patient Education in Reducing Adverse Drug Events in Family Medicine: A Literature Review

Adverse drug events (ADEs) pose a threat to the well-being and lives of individuals receiving care. To address this issue, patient education interventions have been suggested as a means to mitigate the occurrence and severity of ADEs. However, there is inconsistent evidence regarding their effectiveness and feasibility. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the evidence on how patient education interventions in primary care settings can contribute to reducing ADEs. The findings from our narrative literature review indicated that patient education interventions were successful in decreasing the frequency and severity of ADEs compared to care or alternative interventions. Furthermore, it was observed that the effectiveness of these interventions varied depending on factors such as intervention type, duration, frequency, mode of delivery, and content as characteristics of both the population being treated and the setting itself. Through analysis of data, we gained insights into the experiences encountered by healthcare providers and patients concerning education practices and medication safety within primary care settings. Additionally, our study shed light on the benefits offered by patient monitoring (RPM) as a tool, for delivering patient education and enhancing medication safety within primary care settings. The study has implications, for educating patients and ensuring medication safety in primary care settings. It also suggests areas for research. This study has contributed to advancing knowledge and practice by filling gaps in the existing literature and improving the validity, reliability, credibility, transferability, confirmability and dependability of the study findings.