Direct-to-Consumer Drug Advertising and “Health Media Filters”: A Qualitative Study of Older Adult Women's Responses to DTC Ads

Abstract

Print and broadcast direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug ads are permitted in the United States and New Zealand but banned elsewhere. Since restrictions on DTC ads were eased in the U.S. in 1997, these ads have appeared in exponentially rising numbers and use increasingly sophisticated marketing tactics. This qualitative study of DTC ad response and older women is based on in-depth interviews with 25 older women (ages 65–90) in suburban Pennsylvania and Delaware. Women were selected for this study for their tendency to act as health information seekers for themselves and their families. This study used symbolic interactionism and grounded theory as theoretical frameworks to explore how the women responded to a selection of 12 DTC ads found in magazines targeted to older consumers.

Qualitative interviews were coded and analyzed. The final analysis indicated four “health media filters” that participants used to understand symbolic texts and pictures in the ads. These findings suggest that further study may be useful to understand more about how media literacy contributes to health literacy, and exposure to health-related media affects communication between patients and healthcare providers.