Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription medications on the World Wide Web: Assessing the communication of risks

R ecently , drug manufacturers have been increasingly marketing t h eir prescrip ti on medications using Dire c t-to-Consumer (DTC) advertisements . T h e current study examines t he e ff ects of integrating and separating the risks and benefits wit h in a prescription medication DTC web site advertisement . Th e study also examined t h e effects of presenting t h e risk and b enefits at different levels of a we b site . T wo different drug we b sites and two different task t y pes ( general b rowsing and item searc h ) w ere used . R isk recall , recognition, time-on-task , cli c k rate , and task su c cess w ere measured . Results from t h e current study indicated that risk information was found faster , wit h less clicks, and remembered more often w hen placed on a second level page linked from t h e home page . Ho w ever , t h e risk information was more difficult to find when it was placed on a fourth level page without a link on t h e home page . The pattern of effects with the two tasks was similar . N o significant d ifferences were found between the t w o drugs . A set of guidelines is provided for t h e development of DTC prescrip ti on drug w eb sites based on the results . It is beneficial (a ) to present separate risk and b enefit information sections and ( b ) to p lace risk and b enefit information in t h e top section of t h e home page or to prominently place a link to t h e risk information on t h e h ome page . INTRO D UCTION risk and b enefit information . Furthermore , t h ere h as been no researc h pu b lished concerning h o w best to present risk and Since the mid 1980s , considerable researc h has been benefit information on prescription drug advertisement w e b conducted on ho w warnings influence people ' s knowledge and sites . Should risk information be integrated within a drug ' s cautionary be h avior . However, e x perimental researc h into the benefit information to increase the likelihood that they are effectiveness of pharmaceutical warnings is relatively limited , b oth encountered and read b y c onsumers (Frantz & R hoades , E ff ective p h armaceutical la b eling is cru c ial , as t h e general 1993) or s h ould the risk information b e separated from the pu b li c is often unaware of the associated risks and side effe c ts b enefit information allo w ing for t h e use of hig h lig h ting to ( W ilkes, Bell , & K ravitz, 2000 ). Besides t h e information attract attention ( W ogalter , Mills , Paine , & Smith-Jackson , provided by p h ysicians and other health care providers , the 1999)? primary sources of prescription medication information are R elated to this question is the effect of risk information drug labels and inserts and Direct-to-Consumer _ TC) placement within a web site ' s hierarc h y . Does risk advertising , information need to be placed on the drug ' s home page to DTC advertisements are used to market presc ri ption ensure t h at it is seen and read or can t h e risk information b e medications directly to t h e general pu b lic . Drug companies placed at different levels of t h e we b site ' s h ierar c hy and still employ many different t y pes of media in their prescription h ave the same likelihood of being found and read? medication DTC advertisement campaigns, including : print Th e current s tu dy manipulated the risk and benefit ads , television and radio ads , and t he World W ide W e b information within the web sites for two prescription ( WWW ) .