Healthy Skepticism Library item: 2934

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

Larson LN, Smith MC, Sharpe TR, Hy R, Garner DD.
Government regulation and the believability of prescription drug advertising. An application of attribution theory and test of symbolic impact
Drug Intell Clin Pharm. 1977 Jun 01; 11:(6):338-43

Abstract:

An experimental study was undertaken to assess the impact of governmental regulation on the believability of prescription drug advertising. The specific variables investigated were symbolic impact and fair balance. Mock advertisements were developed fo four tricyclic antidepressant drugs. Symbolic impact was operationalized by portraying the advertisements as originating from U.S. medical journals (i.e., regulated) or Mexican medical journals (i.e., unregulated). Fair balaance was operationally defined as the inclusion of a brief summary in the advertisement. A nonrandom sample of twenty-four physicians saw four advertisements representing the four treatment combinations. On a self-administered questionnaire, they indicated their confidence in the information contained in the advertisement. A two-factor, repeated measures randomized block factorial design was employed in the analysis. The results indicated that the presence of fair balance was significantly associated with higher levels of believability; the symbolic impact factor was nonsignificantly associated with believability.

Keywords:
*controlled trial/United States/journal advertisements/quality of information/primary care doctors/fair balance(brief summary)/ATTITUDES REGARDING PROMOTION: HEALTH PROFESSIONALS/EVALUATION OF PROMOTION: GENERAL QUALITY OF INFORMATION/PROMOTIONAL TECHNIQUES: JOURNAL ADVERTISEMENTS Advertising* Legislation, Drug* Prescriptions, Drug* Research Design United States