Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Pharmaceutical manufacturers are spending more than $2.5 billion annually in Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) advertising in an attempt to educate consumers about prescription drugs. Unlike most other consumer goods, prescription drugs cannot be purchased directly by the consumer, and thus the goal of most DTC advertising is to influence consumers to talk to their healthcare providers about medications that they have seen in ads. Is this advertising effective? Who is most influenced by it, and how does reliance on mass versus interpersonal communication for health information affect attitudes and behaviors regarding DTC advertising?
Using data from a nationally representative survey of the U.S. population conducting by a professional polling organization (with a sample size of 3,000), this study uses structural equation modeling to answer the above questions and to explicate linkages among antecedents (age, gender, race, education, income, family structure), socializing agents (mass and interpersonal channels), and attitudes and behaviors regarding DTC advertising.