Development of a Propensity to Self-Medicate with Over-the-Counter Medicines Scale (PSM-OTC).

: To develop a valid and reliable scale to measure the public's propensity to self-medicate with OTC medicines. Propensity construct items were obtained from the literature and also created as new entities. Three experts reviewed the item pool for face validity.

Prevalence and Correlates of Self-Medication Practices for Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19: A Systematic Review.

It has been suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in self-medication practices across the world. Yet, there is no up-to-date synthesized evidence on the prevalence of self-medication that is attributable to the pandemic. This study aimed to conduct a systematic literature review on the prevalence and correlates of self-medication for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 globally.

Patient Influencers: The Next Frontier in Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical Marketing.

Social media influencers are becoming an increasingly popular strategic communication tactic used across industry verticals, including entertainment, fashion, and beauty, to engage directly with consumers. Pharmaceutical companies have also recently entered the social media marketing arena and-within the bounds of governmental regulations-have found ways to build relationships directly with patients using covert persuasion tactics like partnering with social media influencers. Due to consumers' negative perceptions of pharmaceutical companies, it makes sense that new marketing tactics are being used to establish and improve relationships with consumers.

Literally experts: expertise and the processing of analogical metaphors in pharmaceutical advertising.

This research examined differences between novices and experts in processing analogical metaphors appearing in prescription drug advertisements. In contrast to previous studies on knowledge transfer, no evidence of the superiority of experts in processing metaphors was found. The results from an experiment suggest that expert consumers were more likely to process a metaphor in an ad literally than novices.

Metaphors and myths in pharmaceutical advertising.

It should come as no surprise that the ancient Greek word for drug, pharmakon, meant remedy. But this same word also meant poison as well as magical charm. We speak of heart attacks and of a long road to recovery.

Health care knowledge and consumer learning: the case of direct-to-consumer drug advertising.

This research develops a framework for understanding how consumers process health-related information and interact with their caregivers. The context is direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising by pharmaceutical companies in North America. This theoretical research presents a research framework and focuses on the presentation of information in advertisements, consumer-learning processes, consumer utilization of health care knowledge, and bias in perceived risk.