Direct-to-Consumer Prescription Medicine Advertising and Seniors' Knowledge of Alzheimer's Disease.
This study examined whether seniors' exposure to direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) for Alzheimer's disease (AD) medicine contributes to his or her subjective and objective knowledge of AD. A self-administered survey was conducted with a sample of 626 US seniors who were registered for an online consumer research panel. The study found that (1) exposure to DTCA for AD medicine was positively related to seniors' subjective knowledge of AD, (2) DTCA exposure had no significant relationship with overall objective knowledge of AD, and (3) DTCA exposure might influence knowledge of specific features of AD. Although DTCA for AD medicine may induce people to "feel" knowledgeable about AD, it may not result in an equivalent increase in actual knowledge. Therefore, to enhance doctor-patient interactions, both patients and doctors should be aware that although DTCA delivers important and potentially useful health information, it does not necessarily enhance actual knowledge.