Direct-to-Consumer Advertising Skepticism and the Use and Perceived Usefulness of Prescription Drug Information Sources

Abstract

This study investigates advertising skepticism in the context of consumers’ prescription drug information seeking behavior. Results of a telephone survey found that: (a) the overall level of direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) skepticism among consumers was neutral; (b) DTCA skepticism was unrelated to age, positively related to education and income, and varied by race; (c) however, when all the antecedent variables were considered concurrently, only education emerged as a significant predictor (consumers with higher education were more skeptical of DTCA); (d) DTCA skepticism was not significantly related to perceived importance of prescription drug information; (e) DTCA skepticism was not associated with use of advertising and interpersonal sources of prescription drug information; and (f) DTCA skepticism was negatively related to perceived usefulness of advertising sources but unrelated to perceived usefulness of professional interpersonal sources (i.e., physicians and pharmacists). The article concludes with a discussion of findings and directions for future research.

KEYWORDS:

• advertising skepticism
• consumer health decision-making
• consumer health information seeking behavior
• DTC prescription drug advertising

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors would like to thank Dr. James D. Wright, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute for Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Central Florida for his assistance with data collection.

Notes

Note. Mean ratings are based on a five-point scale (5 = strongly agree and 1 = strongly disagree), all items reverse coded. Higher values indicate higher skepticism.

This research was funded in part by the University of Central Florida Research Foundation.