Abstract:

This research compares the differences between general color preference and that of pills among patients. The attitude of the patients towards the color of pills, and the influence of administration time are also explored. The participants were 699 adults (352 female, 347 male) who were selected randomly from the patients in a hospital. The age of the participants ranges from 18 to 66 and the mean age is 43.25±12.11. The questionnaire used in the survey included three parts. The first part was for demographic information and medical history. The second parts asked the participants to score their general color preferences on an 11-point scale. The third part asked them whether the medicine color was necessary, their specific attitude on a 5 point scale (e.g. “How much do you think the medicine should be colored?”), and their preference of 24 colored pills on a 11 point scale (including 4 aspects: “how much do you like it?” “what do you think about the effect?”, “what do you think about the safety?”, “what do you think about the taste”). It is found that the general color preference of the patients is as same as that of other population investigated by previous studies. The exact order is still blue(5.48±3.07), red(5.29±2.99), green(5.27±2.96), violet(5.02±3.01), and yellow(4.74±3.06). But in terms of the color of pills, the order changes. The sequence of pill colors preference is white(7.43±2.05), violet(7.25±2.01), red(6.98±2.15), blue(6.42±2.45), yellow(6.41±2.41), green(6.25±2.55), and black(2.42±1.98). Participants also prefer lighter colors of pills when the hue remains, considering them as more effective, safer and better in taste. Furthermore, 3 levels of luminance were set for the color red and yellow. The pills are more preferred as the color becoming lighter. The participants also agree that medicine should be colorful, and different medicine should have different colors. They report that the color of medicine can help them to distinguish different kinds of medicine, remember the time and amount of medicine they should take, and improve their emotions while taking medicine. Specifically, distinguishing different kinds of medicine gets the highest scores, indicating that this function of medicine colors is most important. Administration time is a factor of this preference. The patients who have taken medicine for a longer time agree more that the medicine should be colored, compared with the new patients. The longer patients take medicine, the eager of them for this function, especially when the administrator time is longer than half a year. There is no significant interaction effect between administration time and the preference order of pills color, showing that this order of preference is not affected by administration time. These results support the ecological valence theory of color preference. People do not like blue medicine because it might be toxic as a special kind of food one eats. Violet is preferred for making the medicine seemed more expensive and relieving the anxiety of patients. Light colors are more popular for both general colors and medicine colors. Higher luminance would promote emotional experiences, and deep colors might indicate the metamorphism of the medicine. These findings are also of important practicability. Colors can help the patients to manage their medical behavior and avoid accidents, especially for the long time taker. Other factors for the color preference of pills and the psychological effect of medicine color are the directions for future research.