Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) Advertising of Prescription Medications on the World Wide Web: Assessing the Communication of Risks

Abstract

Recently, drug manufacturers have been increasingly marketing their prescription medications using Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) advertisements. The current study examines the effects of integrating and separating the risks and benefits within a prescription medication DTC web site advertisement. The study also examined the effects of presenting the risk and benefits at different levels of a web site. Two different drug web sites and two different task types (general browsing and item search) were used. Risk recall, recognition, time-on-task, click rate, and task success were measured. Results from the current study indicated that risk information was found faster, with less clicks, and remembered more often when placed on a second level page linked from the home page. However, the risk information was more difficult to find when it was placed on a fourth level page without a link on the home page. The pattern of effects with the two tasks was similar. No significant differences were found between the two drugs. A set of guidelines is provided for the development of DTC prescription drug web sites based on the results. It is beneficial (a) to present separate risk and benefit information sections and (b) to place risk and benefit information in the top section of the home page or to prominently place a link to the risk information on the home page.

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