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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Kimberly A Kaphingst, ScD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 44 Binney St., Boston, MA 02115, (617) 632-2949, Kimberly_Kaphingst@dfci.harvard.edu
Television direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical advertising presents a series of facts about a prescription drug’s benefits and risks in a short amount of time. Whether members of the general public, the intended audience of this advertising, understand these facts is a key question. Adults with limited literacy skills comprise an important segment of the public for which television DTC advertising is intended, and the literacy skills of audience members should be considered when assessing the educational effectiveness of print and oral information in DTC advertising. Presented here are the results of a study examining the recall and comprehension of risk and benefits information in three television DTC advertisements among a group of adult education students with limited literacy skills. The study participants ranged from nonreaders to those with a 9th-grade reading ability or higher, as assessed by the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM) word recognition instrument (Davis et al., 1993). After participants viewed each advertisement, their recall and comprehension was assessed using a series of true-false questions read aloud by the interviewer. Both verbatim recall and comprehension of information requiring an inference were examined. Recall of information presented in print versus information presented in the audio channel was assessed. Lastly, whether recall and comprehension of the information presented in the DTC advertisements was related to level of print literacy skills, controlling for relevant sociodemographic variables, was examined. This study evaluated whether television DTC advertising can inform members of the public about the risks and benefits of advertised drugs.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Risk Communication, Literacy
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: This study analyzes television advertisements for the following prescription drugs: Nasacort AQ (Aventis), Singulair (Merck), and Zocor (Merck). There is no conflict of interest because this research was conducted independently of any drug company.
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.