The Role of Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical Advertisements and Individual Differences in Getting People to Talk to Physicians

Abstract

In this study, 384 respondents provided quantitative and descriptive information about direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertisements and factors related to message reception and drug adoption. The authors applied M. Booth-Butterfield's (2008) Standard Model to explain how DTC advertising is used in getting individuals to talk to their doctors about pharmaceutical drugs. The researchers predicted that individuals who talked with their physicians about a pharmaceutical drug (referred to as talkers) would differ from those who did not talk with their physicians (referred to as nontalkers) in a number of meaningful ways. Findings from this data set indicate that individuals who talked with their physician about a specific medication were more likely to be female, older, higher in need for cognition, and reported higher physician satisfaction. Total number of channels (TV, radio, newspaper, magazines, and the Internet) was negatively associated with talking to a physician about a specific medication, as was exposure to DTC advertisement on television. The authors offer explanations for these findings along with descriptive accounts of how talkers and nontalkers differed in their recall of DTC advertisement information.