ArticleDrug safety2020
Pharmaceutical Benefit-Risk Perception and Age Differences in the USA and Germany.
Article in Drug safety, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Randomized Controlled Trial of N-acetylcysteine for Adolescent and Young Adult Alcohol Use Disorder.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2026Trial
- The neural and psychophysiological effects of cannabidiol in youth with alcohol use disorder: A randomized controlled clinical trial.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Trial
- N-acetylcysteine does not alter neurometabolite levels in non-treatment seeking adolescents who use alcohol heavily: A preliminary randomized clinical trial.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Trial
- Perceptions of Risk, Benefit and Trust - A Comparative Assessment Between Healthcare Workers and the General Public Towards 3 Medical Technologies.Risk management and healthcare policy · 2024Article
- The Evolving Field of Risk Communication.Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis · 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
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionUnderstanding how patients of all ages perceive the benefits and risks of medical treatments is vitally important. Yet, the role of older age on pharmaceutical benefit-risk perceptions has hardly been empirically investigated as a central focus of study.
objectiveThis study tested the generalizability of recent pilot findings to explore benefit-risk perception age differences between adults aged 65 years old and over (older group) and those aged 18-64 years old (younger group).
methodsAn online survey representative for age, sex, and education was conducted in Ohio, USA (N = 1520) and Germany (N = 1536). A combination of benefit, risk, and affect questions measured respondents' perceptions of 18 medicines, tests, vaccines, and procedures. Further questions investigated general perceptions of side effects and effectiveness, as well as respondents' reliance on different sources of medicines information.
resultsClear age differences were found that strongly support recent pilot findings. Older adults perceived prescription medicines significantly more positively than their younger counterparts. They had significantly higher benefit and lower risk perceptions for most, but not all, medical treatments investigated. Older adults' benefit-risk perceptions were more strongly correlated with positive/negative affect, that is, their positive/negative experiences and feelings of "goodness" or "badness" they associated with each medical treatment investigated. They also perceived doctors and pharmacists as more competent and trustworthy. Contrary to popular belief, both age groups ranked their reliance on 15 different medical (e.g. doctors), societal (e.g. social media), industry (e.g. pharmaceutical company websites), and governmental (e.g. regulatory agencies) sources of medicines information remarkably similarly.
conclusionAge has an important role in patients' pharmaceutical benefit-risk perceptions. Findings show that, when designing messages, benefit-risk communicators should incorporate age differences. This includes older patients' positive perceptions of pharmaceuticals, greater reliance on affect, and information seeking versus scanning behaviour. Field experiments are now needed to test the effectiveness of such changes for improving benefit-risk communication practice.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.