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Abstract

Drug manufacturers have been increasingly marketing their prescription medications using Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) advertisements. This research examines the effects of integrating and separating risks and benefits within prescription drug DTC Website ads and presenting the risk and benefits at different levels of the Website. Two different drug Websites and two different task types (general browsing and item search) were used. Risk and benefit recall, recognition, time-on-task, click rate, and task success for risk and benefit search, as well as risk noticeability, were measured. The risks and benefits were found faster, with fewer clicks, and remembered more often when they were placed higher in the Website and in separate sections. Risks on a fourth level page without a link from the home page were difficult to find. Risks were rated most noticeable when they were presented separately on the home page. Guidelines are provided for the development of DTC Websites.

Keywords

Prescription medications Website advertisement Direct-to-Consumer

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Assessing Risk and Benefit Communication in Direct-to-Consumer Medication Website Advertising

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