Healthy Skepticism Library item: 20159

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: news

Older consumers missing fine print in direct-to-consumer drug ads
Reuters Medical News 2000 May 12

Full text:

Older Americans are being bombarded by pharmaceutical advertising, but they’re missing the fine print, which contains critical information about a drug’s risks and potential side effects, a new study shows.

Older consumers also report that they often do not talk with their physicians and pharmacists about the effects of a medication, indicating that healthcare professionals may not being doing enough to help educate patients.

The findings “suggest that many consumers face a ‘medication information gap’ in the prescription medication marketplace, even though the proliferation of direct-to-consumer advertising might be viewed as increasing the overall volume of available healthcare information”, researchers at the AARP Public Policy Institue conclude.

“Although direct-to-consumer marketing creates awareness of certain products, consumers aren’t necessarily well informed”, said Lisa A. Foley, co-author of the report and a senior policy advisor at the institute, the AARP’s research arm.

The study is based on a national telephone survey conducted by IRC Inc. in December 1998. A total of 1,310 adults were interviewed, with an oversampling of people aged 50 and older.

One third of the audience for direct-to-consumer advertising apparently fails to notice the small print, researchers report. Only 48% of those ages 60 and older said that they notice this information, compared with 67% of people age 18 to 39.

Survey results also revealed that some consumers, particularly older adults, are not always aware that the products pitched in direct-to-consumer advertising are available by prescription only. Twenty percent who have seen such advertising say that the ads “rarely” or “never” make that clear, or say they “don’t know” that a prescription is being advertised.

Furthermore, only 54% of consumers surveyed said that their physicians and pharmacists “usually” talk to them about a product’s risks or side effects.

In light of the findings, John Rother, director of legislation and public policy at the AARP, called on Congress to give the US Food and Drug Administration the authority and funding to intensify their oversight of direct-to-consumer advertising. He also said that physicians and pharmacists should be encouraged to counsel patients about prescription drug use.