Seniors' perceptions of prescription drug advertisements: a pilot study of the potential impact on informed decision making.
OBJECTIVE
To conduct a pilot study exploring seniors' perceptions of direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs and how the advertisements might prepare them for making informed decisions with their physicians.


METHODS
We interviewed 15 seniors (ages 63-82) individually after they each watched nine prescription drug advertisements recorded from broadcast television. Grounded Theory methods were used to identify core themes related to the research questions.


RESULTS
Four themes emerged from the interviews about DTCA: (1) awareness of medications was increased, (2) information was missing or misleading and drugs were often perceived as more effective than clinical evidence would suggest, (3) most seniors were more strongly influenced by personal or vicarious experience with a drug - and by their physician - than by DTCA, and (4) most seniors were circumspect about the information in commercial DTCA.


CONCLUSIONS
DTCA may have some limited benefit for informed decision making by seniors, but the advertisements do not provide enough detailed information and some information is misinterpreted.


CONCLUSIONS
Physicians should be aware that many patients may misunderstand DTCA, and that a certain amount of time may be required during consultations to correct these misconceptions until better advertising methods are employed by the pharmaceutical industry.
School of Community and Global Health, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, USA.
Jerry L
JL
Grenard
Visith
V
Uy
José A
JA
Pagán
Dominick L
DL
Frosch
D000329:Advertising; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D032882:Comprehension; D054626:Consumer Health Information; D003657:Decision Making; D004358:Drug Therapy; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010865:Pilot Projects; D055553:Prescription Drugs; D014481:United States
D055553:Prescription Drugs