Evaluating the influence of presentation modality on the communication of pharmaceutical risk information in direct-to-consumer (DTC) television commercials

Direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising markets medications requiring a physician's script to the general public. Currently, the Food and Drug Administration mandates that direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising include risk disclosures (i.e., side effects and contraindications) in auditory (voice) or both auditory and visual (text) parts of the commercials. Little research has examined the factors that affect the communication of risk disclosures.; The present research was conducted to identify what factors influence recall and recognition of risk disclosures in direct-to-consumer prescription drug television commercials. Three issues were investigated. One was to determine if concurrently presented visual and auditory risk disclosures produced greater recall and recognition than either presented independently. A second issue is whether recall and recognition is better for visual risk disclosures compared to auditory or vise versa. A third issue is whether concurrently presented non-risk disclosures in a competing modality would negatively affect risk disclosure recall and recognition.; The results showed several effects. The first was that risk disclosures presented either visually, auditorily, or combined increased the likelihood of recall and recognition compared to no presentation. Second, risk disclosures presented concurrently in visual and auditory modalities produced the highest recall and recognition. Third, the results indirectly support the idea that presentation of visual risk disclosures produces better recall and recognition compared to auditory risk disclosures. Finally, concurrent presentation of non-risk disclosures with risk disclosures produced lower recall and recognition compared to presenting only risk disclosures. Implications for the design of direct-to-consumer prescription drug television commercials as well as directions for future research are discussed.