Known as direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA), pharmaceutical companies in the United States are permitted to advertise prescription drugs directly to consumers. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if an association exists between DTCA and health care-seeking behaviors. The theoretical framework for this study involved social learning theory, information integration theory, and prospect theory. The research questions identified if exposure to DTCA (a) is associated with physician office visits, (b) influences a patient/physician conversation regarding a prescription, (c) influences requesting a prescription, and (d) has an impact on patients' ratings of the overall interaction with the physician. Data were derived from an online survey adapted from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Participants included 235 college-affiliated adults. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. The Bonferroni correction was used to control the family-wise Type I error rate. The most significant findings of this study are that DTCA is associated with patients asking more questions, having more office visits, and patients having a lower overall health status. Future researchers should consider a non-college-affiliated sample and the post-implementation impact of the Affordable Care Act. This study helps to address the community challenges of how DTCA impacts prescription drug use and costs, as well as patients' understanding of the associated risks. Having knowledge of the impact of DTCA can help patients and their communities, employers, and governments make more informed decisions that will positively impact their health, wellbeing, and prescription expenses.

In an age of biomedicine, technologies, drugs, and treatments are expanding in new and diverse ways. Especially relevant to biomedicalization and this research is how such information is conveyed to the public through the media. Medical information is omnipresent in the media through direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising and regular coverage of health topics in the news. The accessibility and proliferation of medical information provides an important opportunity to examine the ways in which these topics are framed in the media. This research specifically examines the framing of the HPV vaccine, Gardasil in the mass media. In this study, I explore how Gardasil was framed, how gender and sexuality were utilized within such frames, and what groups influenced these frames. I employ frame analysis to examine the presentation of Gardasil in the mass media. Due to the vaccine's intricate connection to gender and sexuality, I examine how these dimensions are utilized and reproduced in such frames. Gardasil was originally approved only for women, making gender a salient aspect of the vaccine. The current body of research examining Gardasil in the media presents data from the time the vaccine was only available to women. Now that the HPV vaccine is approved for men, this research seeks to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of how Gardasil was framed in the media now that it is available to men and women. And given that Gardasil prevents a sexually transmitted infection (STI) in men and women, it is uniquely tied to issues of sexuality. To analyze Gardasil in the media, I examine newspaper articles, magazine articles, and media representations from stakeholder groups, including DTC advertising, official statements, and group websites. Analysis of key sources indicates that Merck dominated the framing of the vaccine in DTC advertisements and the news media, illustrating the power of the pharmaceutical industry. Findings indicate that the initial marketing of Gardasil constructed the vaccine as uniquely tied to femininity and later, women's empowerment. However, once the drug was approved for men, messages were reframed to appeal to a wider audience. Overall, the media continued to frame the vaccine specifically for women, further constructing HPV as a "woman's disease." The dominant focus on women concomitantly silenced the sexual health of men and sexual minorities. In conclusion, the marketing, discourse, and structural elements of Gardasil make it less accessible to those most in need, therefore contributing to the ongoing problem of cervical cancer and HPV.

Direct-to-consumer genomics (DTCG) health testing offers great promise to humanity, however to date adoption has lagged as a result of consumer awareness, understanding, and previous government regulations restricting DTCG companies from providing information on an individual's genetic predispositions. But in 2017 the broader DTCG market which also includes genealogical testing demonstrated exponential growth, implying that DTCG is starting to diffuse as an innovation. To better understand the sociocultural forces affecting diffusion, adoption, and satisfaction, qualitative ethnographic research was conducted with DTCG genealogy and health consumers. The data was qualitatively analyzed using thematic analysis to understand the similarities and differences in beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and mediating factors that have influenced consumers. Design anthropology theory and methods were used to produce ethnographically informed insights. The insights were then translated into actionable product management and business strategy recommendations.

The present empirical study examined factors that affect the acceptance and use of social media platforms by farmers and vendors in farmers’ communities in North Mississippi for marketing their small farm businesses. Based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), structural equations modeling was used to examine several relationships: (1) the influence of performance expectancy (PE) on behavioral intention (BI) to use social media; (2) the influence of effort expectancy (EE) on BI; (3) the influence of social influence (SI) on BI; (4) the influence of facilitating conditions (FC) on actual use (USE) of social media; (5) the moderating influence of gender on the PE–BI, EE–BI, and SI-BI relationships; (6) the moderating influence of age on the PE–BI, EE–BI, SI-BI, and FC–USE relationships; and (7) the moderating influence of experience using social media on the EE–BI, SI-BI, and FC–USE relationships. Results from 169 respondents who completed questionnaires indicated that PE, EE, SI, and FC (key constructs) did predict farmers and vendors’ BI to use social media and actual USE of social media for marketing their small farm businesses and agriproducts. Respondents’ characteristics (e.g., age, gender, social media experience) did moderate some of these relationships in different ways. Thus, the present study provided additional empirical support for UTAUT. Additionally, responses to questions that assessed constructs in UTAUT suggest that respondents are open to social media as a marketing tool for their small farm businesses. Other results indicated that farmers and vendors prefer to market their products through farmers markets and community supported agriculture groups as compared to retail outlets and noted barriers present in retail marketing channels. This study provides information that will be beneficial for the development of educational programs and contributes to the literature on the factors affecting farmers’ intention to use social media to promote agriproducts to connect new markets.