A pre–post evaluation of pharmacist-led education on adolescents’ self-reported medication-related knowledge and perceptions of medicine safety

An online pharmacist-led educational session on safe medicine use was evaluated in adolescents aged 15–18 years using pre- and post-intervention questionnaires ( n = 122 paired responses). Self-reported confidence in knowledge about medicines increased following the intervention in both boys and girls. Changes in safety perceptions were less consistent. The perceived safety of prescription medicines was higher at the post-intervention assessment, particularly among girls, whereas no significant overall change was observed for OTC medicines. Among girls, however, the perceived safety of OTC medicines also increased slightly. OTC medicine use was common (89.3%), and 15.6% of adolescents reported use without parental awareness. These findings suggest that a brief educational session may be followed by changes in self-reported knowledge, while perceptions of commonly used OTC medicines may remain relatively stable. Overall, targeted and repeated educational approaches may be needed to address everyday medicine use in adolescents.