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Factors Affecting Adherence to Governmental Health Warnings and the Case of Over-the-Counter Cough and Cold Medications (OTC-CCM) in Children Under Two

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Innovation and Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Part of the book series: International Series in Quantitative Marketing ((ISQM,volume 20))

Abstract

Governmental health agencies frequently issue warnings about new health hazards (e.g., smoking and excessive drinking). This chapter discusses factors affecting adherence to governmental warnings against the use of household products previously perceived safe. To be effective, a health warning must reach its intended audience and bring about behavior modification. This is challenging because, in order to modify behavior, the warning message must counteract and overpower the effect of habitual safe experience. Indeed the questions of how people perceive such warnings, whether they adhere to them, and what promotes or prevents adherence are central in marketing practice and research.

In this chapter, we review the psychological decision-making literature on trust of the source issuing the warning and safe experience with the risk-causing agent. Next we touch on basic requirements of awareness and understanding of the message. We then review the marketing literature on message design, focusing on factors practical for widespread implementation (i.e., vividness of message, one-sided vs. two-sided messages, regulatory fit). Next, based on behavioral decision research, we discuss how to counteract cognitive and emotional consumer biases that may reduce adherence. Finally, as a case in point, we evaluate adherence to the 2008 United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warning against administration of over-the-counter cough and cold medication (OTC-CCM) in children under age 2. We describe the results of three studies that examine whether parents had heard about OTC-CCM warnings and whether they intended to adhere to them. We conclude with recommendations for optimizing the design and dissemination of similar warnings.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For an exhaustive treatment of the topic, we refer the interested reader to the meta-analysis of 60 studies and 22,500 participants by Keller and Lehmann (2008), showing that message tactics have a significant impact upon intention to adhere to health-related recommendations.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Medical Decision Making, Ono Academic College, Kiryat Ono, Israel

    Talya Miron-Shatz

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK

    Glen M. Doniger & Yaniv Hanoch

Authors
  1. Talya Miron-Shatz
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  2. Glen M. Doniger
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  3. Yaniv Hanoch
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Correspondence to Talya Miron-Shatz .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Smeal College of Business, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Min Ding

  2. The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    Jehoshua Eliashberg

  3. Department of Business Economics, Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Stefan Stremersch

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Miron-Shatz, T., Doniger, G.M., Hanoch, Y. (2014). Factors Affecting Adherence to Governmental Health Warnings and the Case of Over-the-Counter Cough and Cold Medications (OTC-CCM) in Children Under Two. In: Ding, M., Eliashberg, J., Stremersch, S. (eds) Innovation and Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry. International Series in Quantitative Marketing, vol 20. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7801-0_12

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