Does Health Information in Mass Media Help or Hurt Patients? Investigation of Potential Negative Influence of Mass Media Health Information on Patients’ Beliefs and Medication Regimen Adherence

Abstract

As an important public health issue, patient medication non-adherence has drawn much attention, but research on the impact of mass media as an information source on patient medication adherence has been scant. Given that mass media often provide confusing and contradicting information regarding health/medical issues, this study examined the potential negative influence of exposure to health information in mass media on patients' beliefs about their illnesses and medications, and medication adherence, in comparison with the effects of exposure to another primary medication information source, physicians. Survey data obtained from patients on blood thinner regimens revealed that the frequency of exposure to health information in mass media was negatively related to accuracy of patients' beliefs about their medication benefits and patient medication adherence. On the other hand, frequency of visits with physicians was positively associated with patients' beliefs about their medication benefits but had no significant relation to medication regimen adherence. The implications of the study findings are discussed, and methodological limitations and suggestion for future research are presented.

Patients’ Online Information-Seeking Behavior Throughout Treatment: The Impact on Medication Beliefs and Medication Adherence

“…The opportunity to encounter conflicting information also increases when information is obtained from more than one source of information (e.g., a healthcare provider and the internet; Carpenter et al, 2010Carpenter et al, , 2014. This is likely to confuse patients and may potentially lead to misunderstanding, negative beliefs about medication, and consequently, negative health behaviors such as lower medication adherence (Im & Huh, 2017;Nagler, 2014). This is particularly problematic for patients experiencing difficulties in estimating the credibility of online health information (Carpenter et al, 2014).…”

“…In total, 200 determinants of medication adherence have been studied but none of them has been consistently related to adherence (Donovan, 1995). Research on the impact of the internet on medication adherence is rare (Im & Huh, 2017). A recent study showed that almost all chronic patients use the internet to make decisions about their medication (Feathers et al, 2016).…”

“…Chronic patients often need maintenance therapy (Billioud et al, 2011;van den Bemt, Zwikker, & van den Ende, 2012) and they are required to manage their medications by themselves. In such a context, medication adherence is influenced not only by patient-related factors (such as demographics and disease characteristics) but also by patients' beliefs about medication and their use of mass media (Horne et al, 2013;Im & Huh, 2017).…”

“…Online health information is, however, often inaccurate, inappropriate, or not updated (Carpenter et al, 2011;Langille et al, 2010). The potential negative effect of using (inaccurate) online health information on public health-related behaviors has drawn research attention but this is still scarce and inconclusive (Carpenter et al, 2010;Carpenter, Elstad, Blalock, & DeVellis, 2014;Im & Huh, 2017;Sivakumar & Mares, 2016). A reason for these inconclusive results might be that the majority of existing studies are cross-sectional in nature and were thus only able to provide 'snapshots' of patients' online information seeking behavior measured at a single point in time (Bernstein et al, 2011;Lee, Hoti, Hughes, & Emmerton, 2014;Rutten, Arora, Bakos, Aziz, & Rowland, 2005;Squiers, Finney Rutten, Treiman, Bright, & Hesse, 2005).…”

“…A reason for these inconclusive results might be that the majority of existing studies are cross-sectional in nature and were thus only able to provide 'snapshots' of patients' online information seeking behavior measured at a single point in time (Bernstein et al, 2011;Lee, Hoti, Hughes, & Emmerton, 2014;Rutten, Arora, Bakos, Aziz, & Rowland, 2005;Squiers, Finney Rutten, Treiman, Bright, & Hesse, 2005). The interplay between patients' online information seeking behavior throughout treatment, beliefs about medication, and medication adherence therefore warrants more research attention (Im & Huh, 2017). This study aims to longitudinally explore patients' online information seeking behavior throughout treatment (i.e., before a patient education consultation about their newly prescribed medication in the initiation phase of the treatment and six months in the implementation phase of the treatment) and how this online information seeking behavior affects patients' medication beliefs and medication adherence.…”