Healthy Skepticism Library item: 17019

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: Journal Article

Buczak A, Lukasik IM, Witek A.
Use of Painkillers by Polish Secondary School Students and the Influence of TV Commercials.
Gesundheitswesen 2010 Jan 8;
https://www.thieme-connect.com/DOI/DOI?10.1055/s-0029-1242788

Abstract:

This article refers to the results of research conducted in 2008 with financial support (as a grant) of UMCS vice-chancellor. The topic was: Environmental and personal circumstances of taking painkillers available without prescription by secondary school students. 276 high school pupils in Lublin (equivalent of higher grammar-school level in Germany) were examined with a copyright questionnaire to check, among other things, how TV commercials affect taking painkillers. 40.6% of participants take analgesics very often, almost half of them (47.1%) reach for drugs which they know from commercials. 75% of students can indicate at least four examples of specific commercials advertising painkillers. In their depiction of these analgesics by metaphors a great number of analogies with TV advertisements can be found. Those who claim frequent intake of painkillers describe them as ‘necessary, essential’ (31.3%) or as ‘convenient (giving comfort)’ (19.6%). At the same time the majority of students (94.6%) is convinced that reaching for painkillers is socially accepted. Such attitude is probably reinforced by ubiquitous advertising of those drugs in Polish media. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.