Direct to consumer marketing: Advertising directly to consumers may affect patients' safety

doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7496.906-b

BMJ 2005;330:906 (16 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7496.906-b

Letter

Direct to consumer marketing

Advertising directly to consumers may affect patients' safety

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Mansfield et al discussed direct to consumer advertisingof drugs.¹ Consumer advertising on television is different fromdrug advertisements in newspapers and magazines.

Television advertisements mention risks very quickly, whereasthe required "brief summary" in print advertisements includesmore detailed information. Unfortunately, such summaries areusually illegible (because of tiny type sizes), unreadable (becauseof long and complicated sentences), and incomprehensible (becausethey require consumers to understand specialised research andpharmacological and statistical concepts).²

My readability analysis of six brief summaries found them tobe written at a graduate school reading level; four "patientsummaries" were written at grade 11-12 (for students aged 17-18),which was better, but still too difficult for many consumers.³

Cyclo-oxygenase 2 inhibitors were widely promoted through consumeradvertisements. But how could patients understand their risksif they couldn't understand the brief summary that describedthose risks? At some point, do patients (and their . . . [Full text of this article]

Mark Hochhauser, readability consultant

Golden Valley, MN 55422, USA MarkH38514@aol.com