Healthy Skepticism Library item: 16870

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Media Release

Consumers Pay Little or No Attention to Drug Company’s Advertised Risk Disclosures, Latest Under the Skin Study from ORC Guideline Finds
Opinion Research Corporation 2009 Nov 30
http://www.opinionresearch.com/fileSave/Under_the_Skin_11_30FINAL.pdf

Full text:

When it comes to risk disclosures made by drug companies in print and
television ads, many consumers aren’t paying attention, according to a recent study by ORC Guideline (an
infoGROUP company, NASDAQ: IUSA). The latest study in the company’s Under the Skin series found that
41 percent of US consumers pay little or no attention to risk information presented by pharmaceutical companies
in their TV commercials, and only half (50 percent) pay attention to such disclosures in print ads. This lack of
attention is most prevalent among those 55 years of age or older.
“A probable cause for this considerable lack of interest may be risk information overload,” said Morris S.
Whitcup, Ph.D. Chief Research Officer at ORC Guideline. “As consumers utilize a wide variety of sources to
learn about prescription medications, it may not be optimal for the FDA to require that pharmaceutical
companies include the same details in each of the channels they use to communicate information about their
prescription drug products,” he continued. “When we asked consumers specifically about their preferences for
obtaining prescription drug risk information online, we learned that many would appreciate a truly condensed
version of such disclosures, accompanied by links to obtain more detailed information.”
Included among the ways in which consumers preferred to see prescription drug risk disclosures presented
online were: Direct links to an independent website such as WebMD (32 percent); having a condensed version
of risk disclosures available a click away (27 percent); and a direct link to a pharmaceutical company (26
percent) or government website (25 percent) that provided the information. ###
This release includes the findings of an online survey conducted among a sample of 1,045 adults comprising 503
men and 542 women 18 years of age and older. Interviewing for this survey was completed on October 29-30,
2009.