Experimental Study of the Promotional Implications of Proprietary Prescription Drug Names.

Background: The meaning and characteristics embedded in proprietary drug names have the potential to affect name recall, perceptions of drug benefits and risks, and attitudes toward a drug. In this study, we examined: (1) whether names that reference the drug's medical indication affect consumers' and primary care physicians' (PCPs') perceptions of the drug and (2) whether names that overstate the drug's efficacy affect consumers' and PCPs' perceptions of the drug.

Methods: We conducted an online experiment with 455 PCPs and 450 consumers to test the effects of fictitious proprietary prescription drug names.

Predictors of willingness to get a COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S.

Background: As COVID-19 vaccine distribution efforts continue, public health workers can strategize about vaccine promotion in an effort to increase willingness among those who may be hesitant.

Methods: In April 2020, we surveyed a national probability sample of 2279 U.S.

Mental Models of Infectious Diseases and Public Understanding of COVID-19 Prevention.

The emergence of viral diseases such as Ebola virus disease, Zika virus disease, and the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has posed considerable challenges to health care systems around the world. Public health strategy to address emerging infectious diseases has depended in part on human behavior change and yet the perceptions and knowledge motivating that behavior have been at times inconsistent with the latest consensus of peer-reviewed science. Part of that disjuncture likely involves the existence and persistence of past ideas about other diseases.

Development and validation of prescription drug risk, efficacy, and benefit perception measures in the context of direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising.

Purpose: Understanding patient perceptions of prescription drug risks and benefits is an important component of determining risk-benefit tradeoffs and helping patients make informed medication decisions. However, few validated measures exist for capturing such perceptions. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate measures of perception of prescription drug risk, efficacy, and benefit.

Enhanced Recovery after Surgery for Cesarean Delivery Decreases Length of Hospital Stay and Opioid Consumption: A Quality Improvement Initiative.

Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the effect of a resident-led enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocol for scheduled prelabor cesarean deliveries on hospital length of stay and postpartum opioid consumption.

Study Design: This retrospective cohort study included patients who underwent scheduled prelabor cesarean deliveries before and after implementation of an ERAS protocol at a single academic tertiary care institution. The primary outcome was length of stay following cesarean delivery.

Taking Repeated Exposure into Account: An Experimental Study of Direct-To-Consumer Prescription Drug Television Ad Effects.

: Little is known about how repeated exposure to direct-to-consumer prescription drug promotion can impact consumers' retention and perceptions of drug information. The study described here tested the effects of varied ad exposure frequency on these outcomes. : In an in-person experiment, participants with seasonal allergies ( = 616) were randomized to view a mock prescription drug television ad either once, twice, or four times within 1 h of television programming, embedded with six commercial breaks.

A Mental Models Approach to Assessing Public Understanding of Zika Virus, Guatemala.

Mental models are cognitive representations of phenomena that can constrain efforts to reduce infectious disease. In a study of Zika virus awareness in Guatemala, many participants referred to experiences with other mosquitoborne diseases during discussions of Zika virus. These results highlight the importance of past experiences for Zika virus understanding.

Professional online community membership and participation among healthcare providers: An extension to nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

Background And Purpose: Professional online communities allow healthcare providers to exchange ideas with their colleagues about best practices for patient care. Research on this topic has focused almost exclusively on primary care physicians and specialists, to the exclusion of advanced practice providers such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants. We expand this literature by examining membership and participation on these websites among each of these provider groups.

Effects of Framing Health Messages in Terms of Benefits to Loved Ones or Others: An Experimental Study.

Many health officials believe the future of public health is in prevention of infectious diseases like pandemic influenza. Vaccine promotion is becoming an increasingly important area for health communication researchers. One strategy health promoters can consider is to emphasize that getting vaccinated protects not only the self, but also loved ones, and unknown others to whom the disease could be spread.

Information seeking from media and family/friends increases the likelihood of engaging in healthy lifestyle behaviors.

The amount of cancer-related information available to the general population continues to grow; yet, its effects are unclear. This study extends previous cross-sectional research establishing that cancer information seeking across a variety of sources is extensive and positively associated with engaging in health-related behaviors. The authors studied how active information seeking about cancer prevention influenced three healthy lifestyle behaviors using a 2-round nationally representative sample of adults ages 40-70 years (n = 1,795), using propensity scoring to control for potential confounders including baseline behavior.

Differences in information seeking among breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer patients: results from a population-based survey.

Objective: There is much research describing cancer patients' information needs and their use of the Internet, print media, and other sources to fulfill these needs. Yet little is known about whether patients with different types of cancer vary in their information needs and seeking behaviors. This study used population-based data to address this question.

Response rates to a mailed survey of a representative sample of cancer patients randomly drawn from the Pennsylvania Cancer Registry: a randomized trial of incentive and length effects.

Background: In recent years, response rates to telephone surveys have declined. Online surveys may miss many older and poorer adults. Mailed surveys may have promise in securing higher response rates.

How do cancer patients navigate the public information environment? Understanding patterns and motivations for movement among information sources.

Little is known about how patients move among information sources to fulfill unmet needs. We interviewed 43 breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer patients. Using a grounded theory approach, we identified patterns and motivations for movement among information sources.

Validating measures of scanned information exposure in the context of cancer prevention and screening behaviors.

Individuals may obtain health information, particularly from the mass media, without engaging in purposeful information searches (called scanning). This study used the Seeking and Scanning Behavior Survey of the General Population (SSBG), a nationally representative survey of adults aged 40-70 years (n = 2,489), to validate measures of scanned information exposure about cancer prevention and screening behaviors. Scanned exposure measures concerning specific behaviors (exercise; fruit and vegetable consumption; dieting; and mammogram, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) text, and colonoscopy screening) have good face validity and are convergent across behaviors (mean correlation across six preventive behaviors = 0.

The HPV vaccine and the media: how has the topic been covered and what are the effects on knowledge about the virus and cervical cancer?

Objective: In June 2006, the first vaccine for HPV was approved by the FDA and media coverage about the topic increased significantly. This study sought to explore the nature of the coverage and whether knowledge about HPV was affected by it.

Methods: A content analysis, including 321 news stories from major newspapers, the AP wire and television news networks was conducted.

Effects of information framing on human papillomavirus vaccination.

Background: In June 2006, the first vaccine to prevent human papillomavirus (HPV) transmission was approved for use in females in the United States. Because the vaccine was approved for females as young as 9, its success depends on parents' and individuals' willingness to accept vaccination. Little is known about how attitudes toward this vaccine will be influenced by the way the vaccine is portrayed in the media or in public debate.

Examining the dimensions of cancer-related information seeking and scanning behavior.

Recent decades have witnessed a growing emphasis on patients as active consumers of health information. The literature about cancer-related information focuses on active and purposeful information seeking, but a great deal of exposure to cancer-relevant information may happen less purposively (termed information scanning). This article presents results from an in-depth interview study that examined information seeking and scanning behavior in the context of cancer prevention and screening decisions among a diverse sample of people living in a major metropolitan area.