ArticleAnnals of family medicine2018
An Updated Analysis of Direct-to-Consumer Television Advertisements for Prescription Drugs.
Article in Annals of family medicine, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Where do people obtain side effect information? Results from a census-matched U.S. national survey.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2026Article
- Navigating the Prescription Drug Information System.Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics · 2026Review
- Medical Students and Clinicians' Perceptions of Social Media Direct-to-Consumer Advertising and Medication Requests.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Developing personas to examine older adult engagement with televised direct-to-consumer advertisements: A theory based approach.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2025Article
- Patients as Consumers: Reflections on the FDA's New Rule on Direct-to-Consumer Advertising.American journal of preventive medicine · 2025Article
- A study of implementation factors for a novel approach to clinical trials: constructs for consideration in the coordination of direct-to-patient online-based medical research.BMC medical research methodology · 2024Article
- International Center-Level Variation in Utilization of Completion Lymph Node Dissection and Adjuvant Systemic Therapy for Sentinel Lymph Node-Positive Melanoma at Major Referral Centers.Annals of surgery · 2023Article
- Direct-to-Consumer Recruitment Methods via Traditional and Social Media to Aid in Research Accrual for Clinical Trials for Rare Diseases: Comparative Analysis Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- Article
- Does price disclosure in pharmaceutical advertising result in price transparency? Evidence from a randomized experiment.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2022Article
- Communicative and Discursive Perspectives on the Medication Experience.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Content Analysis of 2012-2019 FDA Warning Letters and Notices of Violations using the Economic, Clinical, and Humanistic Outcomes (ECHO) Model.Innovations in pharmacy · 2021Article
- Physicians Treating Alzheimer's Disease Patients Should Be Aware that Televised Direct-to-Consumer Advertising Links More Strongly to Drug Utilization in Older Patients.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2021Article
- Influence of Pharmaceutical Direct-to-Consumer Advertisement on Medical Treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease-An Outpatient Survey-Based Study.Crohn's & colitis 360 · 2020Article
- Impact of direct-to-consumer drug advertising during the Super Bowl on drug utilization.Research in social & administrative pharmacy : RSAP · 2020Article
- A novel approach to conducting clinical trials in the community setting: utilizing patient-driven platforms and social media to drive web-based patient recruitment.BMC medical research methodology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeIn 2015, the American Medical Association called for a ban of direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) for prescription drugs. Yet, the pharmaceutical industry spends more than ever on broadcast advertisements, with national health care costs largely driven by drug spending. An evaluation of these ads is critical, as these advertisements can impact the frequency which patients ask their doctors about medications.
methodsA content analysis of prime-time direct-to-consumer ads was conducted across 4 major cable television networks. The ad content (n = 61) was coded for factual claims made regarding target conditions, appeals used, portrayal of medications, and lifestyle characteristics shown.
resultsWe found a substantial decrease in the percentage of ads that conveyed information about the conditions being targeted, such as risk factors (16%) and prevalence (16%). Positive emotional appeals (94%) continued to be emphasized; yet there was decreased use of negative emotional appeals (51%), pointing to an overall more positive portrayal of a patient's experience with a medication. The lifestyles portrayed in the sample largely featured how products can enable more recreational activities (69%) and fewer ads (7%) presented alternatives to product use.
conclusionsDirect-to-consumer advertising continued to promote prescription drugs above educating the population. Improvement in the educational value of DTCA is likely to require regulatory action rather than reliance on self-regulation by the pharmaceutical industry.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.