Americans aren’t just purchasing more pills as a result of direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising: Three-quarters of them are also asking more questions of their health care providers, according too a new survey.
One in seven respondents said their physicians were not doing a good job of explaining risks and side effects of various medications to them, and only 40% felt their physicians did a “very good” job with their explanations. In contrast, more than half --- 57% -- of those surveyed also indicated that DTC television ads were effective in describing the risks, as were 59% of the print ads.
“[Direct to consumer advertising is] helping consumer by filling a gap that has been left when time constraints of managed care impede a doctor’s ability to effectively educate patients,” said Morris S. Whitcup, president of Advanced Analytics Inc., which conducted the study.
Advanced Analytics called more than 800 randomly selected adults, constituting a nationally projectable sample, in December.
