Patients and direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising

In continuing with my introduction from last night, tonight I am sharing the abstract of a research project I conducted in 2004-05 while a graduate student at Marquette University. This paper won the faculty/MA student symposium best paper competition in 2005. http://www.marquette.edu/comm/grad/symposium_papers.shtml

Patients exerting control with their physician: Bringing direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising into the conversation

Introduction - With the burgeoning of direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising, patients can bring in more information from outside sources to the conversation with their physician than ever before. My study examines the potential impact of direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising on the relationship between patients and physicians.

Theory - The study was guided by relational control theory, which says that conversation partners assert control through patterns of conversation. Relational control stems from the notion that interactional partners assert control through patterns of conversation indicating who is in charge.

Hypothesis - It is expected that patients who bring information about a specific drug to the conversation will exert more control during the conversation. It is expected that patients, who realize the advertisements are produced by the pharmaceutical companies and not government health agencies, will use that information as part of the conversation by asking more questions about their health care.

Data analysis - I examined my hypothesis by analyzing data from a 2001-02 Harvard Medical School survey on the public health impact of prescription drug advertising. I specifically examined responses that indicated that a prescription drug advertisement had caused a respondent to take some action and their satisfaction with the outcome.

Discussion – Patients are indeed asking their physicians questions based on prescription drug advertisements and those questions are not just limited to asking about a specific drug. Satisfaction with the interactions about a drug is relatively high and indicates that patients are satisfied with how their physicians handle their health concerns.