Stephen W. Birdwell

Consumer Retention of Risk Information from Direct-To-Consumer Advertising

The objective of this study was to determine if consumers retain risk information from direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA). The study design utilized a postgroup only control group design. Study participants were randomly selected from a statewide database of men between the ages of 60–75. These sampling criteria were selected because the ads used in the study were related to Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH). The 1093 participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: disease-specific institutional ad group, product-specific ad group, or the control group. Participants in the two treatment groups were sent ads at one-week intervals for three weeks. A self-administered mailed questionnaire was used for data collection and mailed one week after the last ad was sent. The results show there was no statistically significant difference among the three groups regarding the correct answering of any of the risk information questions. A post hoc analysis of the data by whether the respondents indicated they had seen an ad for the product or had used the product in the past, however, yielded different results. Respondents who reported they had seen an ad for the product could have seen the ad from some other media source other than the intervention used in this study. These results show that having seen an ad for the product in the past does increase risk information retention. Past experience in taking the product, however, provides an even greater degree of retention of risk information, but may also provide a false sense of knowledge regarding some types of risk information.

Consumer Perceived Risk Associated with Prescription Drugs

Consumer perceived risk associated with prescription drugs was evaluated using Jacoby and Kaplans definition of overall risk as a function of performance, safety, financial, psychological, and social risks. Patients in an outpatient pharmacy (n = 100) were asked to evaluate four classes of drugs: cough/cold, antihypertensives, sedatives, and hypnotics. The results indicate that consumers do perceive a different level of risk for each drug class. Although safety risk was the most common type perceived by the consumers, the significant correlation between overall risk and its components, specifically performance risk, should not be discounted.

Survey of Wastage from Intravenous Admixture in US Hospitals

SummaryThe purpose of this study was 10 assess current wastage from intravenous systems designed for intermittent use in US hospitals. Questionnaires were mailed to pharmacy directors at 1393 randomly selected hospitals. Respondents were asked to indicate their overall percentage intravenous wastage rate, intravenous admixture policies and procedures, and wastage rates for currently used intermittent intravenous drug delivery systems, If actual data were not available. respondents were asked to provide estimates based on their perceptions of wasteA total of 237 (17.0%) usable responses were returned, The mean intravenous wastage was 2.85% (± 3AO) for respondents who provided actual values and 4.28% (± 3.83) for respondents who provided estimated values. Lower mean wastage rates were found for hospitals which: (a) received written notification of discontinued intravenous systems: (b) had an elasped time of ⩽1 hour from discontinuation of the intravenous system to notification in the pharmacy: (c) actively retrieved discontinued intravenous systems from the nursing unit; and (d) had a daily return of discontinued intravenous systems to the pharmacy. Based on actual values provided by respondents, for 9 in travenous systems the mean wastage rates were lowest for commercially prepared intermittent systems such as frozen piggyback systems [1.5% (± 1.4)] and piggyback systems stored at room temperature [3.2% (± 5.2)]. and 4.4% (± 16.0) for nursing-activated ADD-Vantage ® systems.We expected that pharmacy managers would monitor waste regularly and be able to provide actual values for wastage rates. However. only 124 (53.3%) of the respondents provided actual data. Results of a survey of 108 nonrespondents showed that 55.6% indicated that the data were not readily available and would take too long to collect. These results, combined with the low response rate, suggest that intravenous wastage is not monitored on a regular basis by many hospital pharmacy departments.