The University of Sydney School of Dentistry, Faculty of Medicine and Health, 2-18 Chalmers Street, Sydney, NSW, 2010, Australia.
The University of Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Edward Ford Building (A27), Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.
BMC Public Health. 2021 Jan 7;21(1):74. doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-10078-9.
There has been little examination of consumer attitudes towards the commercial advertising of healthcare services in Australia and how marketing is used by consumers in their health decision-making. In this research, we examined how consumers reported commercial advertising helped them to understand the health services available to them and the influence that marketing had upon their choices.
A survey instrument using a Likert scale to indicate agreement or disagreement with 21 questions was developed using qualitative interviews before being distributed online within Australia. Sampling of participants was stratified by age, gender and location. The results were subjected to statistical analysis with Spearman Rank Correlation test being used for bivariate analysis.
One thousand five hundred sixty-four complete surveys were collected. The results revealed certain consumer beliefs, for example; the title of 'Dr' was believed to indicate skill and high levels of training (81.0%), with 80.3% agreeing incorrectly that use of the title was strictly regulated. Participants reported to have a higher confidence in their own abilities (71.2%) than the public (52.8%) in assessing health advertising. The level of self-confidence increased with higher education level and decreased by age (p < 0.05). Testimonials were reported to be lacking in reliability (67.7%) and that they should not be used in healthcare in the same manner as they are used in other industries. Only 44.8% of participants reported that they felt confident to spot a review that was not written by a genuine user of a service.
The data demonstrated that many health consumers felt that while commercial health advertising was helpful, it was also confusing, with many participants also holding mistaken beliefs around other elements of commercial health advertising. While the advertising of healthcare services might have educational effects and be superficially empowering, advertising is primarily intended to sell, not educate. This research demonstrates that there is significant potential for healthcare advertising to mislead. Future developments in regulatory health advertising policy, and the related ethical frameworks developed by professional healthcare associations, need to consider how the consumers of healthcare services might be better protected from misleading and predatory advertising practices.
澳大利亚对医疗服务的商业广告的消费者态度以及营销在消费者健康决策中的作用进行了很少的研究。在这项研究中，我们研究了消费者如何报告商业广告帮助他们了解可获得的健康服务，以及营销对他们选择的影响。
在在线分布之前，使用定性访谈开发了一种使用李克特量表来表示对 21 个问题的同意或不同意的调查工具。参与者的抽样按年龄、性别和地点分层。结果进行了统计分析，使用 Spearman 秩相关检验进行双变量分析。
共收集了 1564 份完整的调查。结果显示出某些消费者的信念，例如：“博士”头衔被认为表示技能和高水平的培训（81.0%），而 80.3%错误地认为该头衔的使用受到严格监管。参与者报告说，在评估健康广告方面，他们比公众（52.8%）更有信心（71.2%）。自信心随着教育水平的提高而提高，随着年龄的增长而降低（p<0.05）。证词被报告缺乏可靠性（67.7%），并且不应该像在其他行业中那样在医疗保健中使用。只有 44.8%的参与者报告说，他们有信心发现不是服务真正用户撰写的评论。
数据表明，许多医疗保健消费者认为，虽然商业医疗广告有帮助，但也令人困惑，许多参与者对商业医疗广告的其他元素也持有错误的信念。虽然医疗服务的广告可能具有教育效果并且表面上赋予权力，但广告主要是为了销售，而不是教育。这项研究表明，医疗保健广告存在很大的误导风险。未来在监管医疗广告政策方面的发展，以及专业医疗保健协会制定的相关伦理框架，需要考虑如何更好地保护医疗服务消费者免受误导和掠夺性广告实践的影响。
