Potential Outcomes Associated with Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Prescription Drugs

A random sample of 2,000 physician members of the Texas Medical Association was surveyed to assess physician perceptions of outcomes that might result from direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertisements appearing in print media. Three hundred forty-three usable responses were received. Respondents were asked to rate 22 potential outcome belief statements on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly agree; 5 = strongly disagree). Overall, physicians agreed that direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs would be more likely to result in negative outcomes than in positive outcomes for both themselves and consumers. Specifically, they disagree that DTCA would result in better drug therapies (mean = 4.01) and agreed that it would confuse patients (mean = 2.07) and increase patient demand for the advertised drug (mean = 1.75). These results indicate that physicians do not believe that DTCA will necessarily have a positive impact on consumers.