FDA labeling and consumer effects

FDA Labeling and Consumer Effects Jorden Crowe, Vanessa Jones, Sydney Young, Abigail Mohr, Emily Lush Dr. Gregory Corso, Department of Psychology, Morehead State University Prior research reported that consumers obtain more information from over the counter medicine packaging when name and dosage of the medicine was located in the upper right hand corner of the package. However, this conclusion was recommended without any input from consumers. This inspired us to ask what information actual consumers would deem most important when buying over-the-counter medication. To answer this question, each participant was given a piece of paper containing a large blank rectangle representing a blank medication package. Contained within the large rectangle was a smaller blank rectangle that was located at the upper right corner of the larger rectangle. Finally, located below the large rectangle were 18 descriptors items that might be found on over-the-counter labels. The participants (N=53) placed items they deemed important inside the large rectangle and up to three items that they felt were most important inside the smaller rectangle. The frequency of where each item was placed on the label in general and the frequency of which item was placed in the smaller box were analyzed. The most frequently listed item was purpose for the drug followed closely by drug name and dosage. In the small box, the most frequently listed item was dosage with the next two highest being drug name and purpose for the drug. This supports the decision that the authors of prior research made about what to put in the small box to an extent. Most medication labels have the purpose somewhere on them but this study shows that consumers view it as highly important and it should be highlighted as well as dosage and drug name. In subsequent experiments, we will place the most commonly listed items in a highlighted portion of a packaging label and test the knowledge that participants obtain from the packages