How Prevention and Response Information About Risks Affect Perception

Objectives: To compare the effects of two types of information, prevention and response, presented in medication guides and on patients’ perception of medication risks/benefits. Methods: Participants (N=215) were recruited using Amazon Mechanical Turk. The study utilized a 2x2 factorial design. The medication guide used in this study informed participants on the use of a hypothetical DMARD named Xelba. There were four versions of the medication guide that included variations of response and prevention information to a common side effect of a DMARD: infection. Data were collected via the internet. Results: Providing prevention and response information on the side effect of infection with the use of a DMARD did not affect participants’ perception of the medication. Conclusions: We found no evidence that providing prevention and response information about risks of a medication affects participants’ perception of the medication. More research on this topic should be completed to determine how to better format medication guides. Using a larger sample size to increase the power of the study, focusing on risk and prevention strategies that are less well known to participants, and using methods more similar to real life communication of medication information may reveal larger effects.Doctor of Pharmac