What kind of patients and physicians value direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs.

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription drugs can enhance the physician-patient relationship, as well as benefiting its sponsor. However, overall benefits can only occur if the patients value the information enough to discuss it with their physicians and the physicians are not predisposed against the DTC information. We investigate the impact of demographics and exposure to marketing on consumers' and physicians' receptiveness to DTC advertising of prescription drugs, using data from two nationwide surveys. We find that consumers who have an ongoing need for health care, that is, those with children or with a chronic condition requiring medication, value prescription drug advertising more highly, while older consumers, consumers who have been sick recently, or more educated consumers are more likely to trust their physicians instead. We find that more experienced physicians, physicians who see more patients, or those who have more exposure to pharmaceutical advertisements are more accepting of DTC advertising of prescription drugs.