Attitudinal Dimensions that Determine Pharmacists' Decisions to Support DTCA of Prescription Medication

Abstract

The use of consumers as a channel of marketing prescription drugs is now being more thoroughly explored by the pharmaceutical industry through direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA). As medication distributor and counselor, the pharmacist is in a unique position to observe the effects of DTCA. The purpose of this study was to assess pharmacists' attitudes toward DTCA. A survey mailed to a randomized statewide sample of pharmacists solicited their level of agreement to 24, Likert-type items pertaining to the possible effects of DTCA in addition to requesting relevant respondent demographic information. Results indicated that 59% of the pharmacists did not support DTCA. Chi-squared analysis indicated that support of DTCA was independent of respondent demographics. Factor analysis revealed four underlying dimensions (“action,” “disruption,” “knowledge,” and “market”) explaining 53.4% of the variance in attitudes. Discriminant analysis was used to correctly classify 76% of respondents as supporters and nonsupporters of DTCA. The study concludes that pharmacists believe in the possibility of numerous entwined effects of DTCA, resulting in a complex composition of their attitudes.

Keywords

Direct-to-consumer advertising Attitudes Factor analysis Pharmacist-patient communication Consumer knowledge

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