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Direct-to-consumer advertising of prespcription drugs : effects on prescribing and policy implications Mintzes, Barbara
Abstract
The United States and New Zealand are the only industrialized countries that allow direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines (DTCA). Spending on this form of pharmaceutical promotion has grown rapidly within the last decade, and national governments - including the Canadian government - are under strong pressure from the industry to relax current restrictions on prescription drug advertising aimed at the public. DTCA is highly controversial, with many claimed beneficial and harmful effects, and often little empirical evidence to back those claims. The aim of this thesis is to move the policy debate on DTCA beyond competing claims, to a better understanding of what is and is not known about the effects of this form of pharmaceutical marketing on health and health care services. It consists of four components: a critical review of the empirical literature; a patient-doctor survey examining the effects of DTCA on prescribing decisions in primary care; a historical overview and discussion of international policy developments; and an opinion survey of pharmaceutical policy experts in Canada in sectors likely to be affected by DTCA. The original research component was a comparative cross-sectional survey in 78 primary care physicians' offices, involving 1431 patients, in Sacramento, California, and Vancouver, British Columbia. DTCA is expected to have the greatest impact in primary care, both because of the types of drugs that are advertised and because this is where most prescribing occurs. The unit of analysis was a matched set of patient and physician questionnaires covering a single consultation. The primary hypothesis was that patients in Sacramento, in an environment with full legal DTCA, would request and receive more advertised drugs than patients in Vancouver, where DTCA is illegal, but where there is exposure to cross-border advertising. Additionally, patients in each setting with higher individual self-reported advertising exposure were hypothesized to request more advertised medicines than patients with lower exposure. Patients in the two samples had similar demographic and socio-economic characteristics. Exposure to DTCA was higher in Sacramento, but 90% of Vancouver patients had seen DTCA. In general, Sacramento patients were more likely to request medicines: 15.8% of Sacramento patients requested new prescriptions vs. 9% in Vancouver (OR = 2.0; 95% CI 1.3-3.1). They were also more likely to request advertised drugs: 7.3% of Sacramento patients vs. 3.2% in Vancouver (OR=2.2; 95% CI 1.2-4.1). Patients with higher selfreported advertising exposure, conditions potentially treatable by advertised drugs, and/or greater reliance on advertising requested more advertised medicines. Approximately three quarters of the patients who requested advertised drugs in both settings received prescriptions. The prescribing rate did not differ between the two samples. In both settings, physicians were often ambivalent about treatment choice, rating a drug they had prescribed as a 'possible' or 'unlikely' choice for other similar patients, versus a 'very likely' choice. They expressed some degree of ambivalence for 50.0% of new prescriptions for advertised drugs requested by patients vs. 12.4% of new prescriptions not requested by patients (p
Item Metadata
Title |
Direct-to-consumer advertising of prespcription drugs : effects on prescribing and policy implications
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Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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Date Issued |
2003
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Description |
The United States and New Zealand are the only industrialized countries that allow
direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines (DTCA). Spending on this form
of pharmaceutical promotion has grown rapidly within the last decade, and national
governments - including the Canadian government - are under strong pressure from the
industry to relax current restrictions on prescription drug advertising aimed at the public.
DTCA is highly controversial, with many claimed beneficial and harmful effects, and
often little empirical evidence to back those claims. The aim of this thesis is to move the
policy debate on DTCA beyond competing claims, to a better understanding of what is
and is not known about the effects of this form of pharmaceutical marketing on health
and health care services. It consists of four components: a critical review of the empirical
literature; a patient-doctor survey examining the effects of DTCA on prescribing
decisions in primary care; a historical overview and discussion of international policy
developments; and an opinion survey of pharmaceutical policy experts in Canada in
sectors likely to be affected by DTCA.
The original research component was a comparative cross-sectional survey in 78 primary
care physicians' offices, involving 1431 patients, in Sacramento, California, and
Vancouver, British Columbia. DTCA is expected to have the greatest impact in primary
care, both because of the types of drugs that are advertised and because this is where
most prescribing occurs. The unit of analysis was a matched set of patient and physician
questionnaires covering a single consultation. The primary hypothesis was that patients in
Sacramento, in an environment with full legal DTCA, would request and receive more
advertised drugs than patients in Vancouver, where DTCA is illegal, but where there is
exposure to cross-border advertising. Additionally, patients in each setting with higher
individual self-reported advertising exposure were hypothesized to request more
advertised medicines than patients with lower exposure.
Patients in the two samples had similar demographic and socio-economic characteristics.
Exposure to DTCA was higher in Sacramento, but 90% of Vancouver patients had seen
DTCA. In general, Sacramento patients were more likely to request medicines: 15.8% of
Sacramento patients requested new prescriptions vs. 9% in Vancouver (OR = 2.0; 95%
CI 1.3-3.1). They were also more likely to request advertised drugs: 7.3% of Sacramento
patients vs. 3.2% in Vancouver (OR=2.2; 95% CI 1.2-4.1). Patients with higher selfreported
advertising exposure, conditions potentially treatable by advertised drugs, and/or
greater reliance on advertising requested more advertised medicines.
Approximately three quarters of the patients who requested advertised drugs in both
settings received prescriptions. The prescribing rate did not differ between the two
samples. In both settings, physicians were often ambivalent about treatment choice, rating
a drug they had prescribed as a 'possible' or 'unlikely' choice for other similar patients,
versus a 'very likely' choice. They expressed some degree of ambivalence for 50.0% of
new prescriptions for advertised drugs requested by patients vs. 12.4% of new
prescriptions not requested by patients (p
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Extent |
32100746 bytes
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Genre | |
Type | |
File Format |
application/pdf
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Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2009-11-13
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0091224
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URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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Graduation Date |
2003-11
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Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.