Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Direct-To-Consumer Advertising Of Prescription Medicines: Framing With Imprecise Frequency Descriptors, Mikah Zangla

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of the study was to determine how often and to what degree “imprecise frequency descriptors” are used in prescription drug print ads. These descriptors along with the side effects they describe were compared to their corresponding prescription medicine websites and analyzed to determine whether or not the general public is being misinformed and/or misled in terms of side effect warnings by current drug advertising. Content analysis of Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertisements found in five of the top seven magazines most likely to be consumed by readers over age 65 was the method of investigation for this study. …