Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
In addition, our data highlight the role of trust in determining intention to adhere
to governmental health warnings. Therefore, in keeping with the requirements
outlined above for effective health communication, the FDA must both step up its
efforts to reach target audiences and to do so convincingly. The challenges of creat-
ing effective health communications faced by the FDA may be unique to the USA
and not representative of those relevant to similar health organizations in other
countries. Indeed low trust of the FDA may be attributable to its recent approval and
subsequent removal of another drug for chronic pain (Harris
2005
) or low public
satisfaction with healthcare reform (Taylor-Gooby
2006
; Taylor-Gooby and
Bromley
2003
). Warnings about OTC-CCM usage are a prime case study for com-
paring similar warnings across countries.
The UK and USA differ with respect to their health care coverage (Laugesen and
Rice
2002
) and access to health care professionals, which may also affect trust in
governmental health organizations. As such, in our second study (Himmelstein
et al.
2011
), we administered a similar survey to over 900 UK parents. This time we
asked whether they had heard about the MHRA warning issued (following the FDA
recommendations) in March 2008 (MHRA
2008
). Similar to our US fi ndings, over
a third (343, 36.5 %) of UK parents reported that they had not heard about the
MHRA warning. Of the parents who had heard of the warning and who had given
OTC-CCM to their children (349), over half (54.4 %) indicated that they did not
trust the MHRA or were unsure whether to trust them. Of the 382 parents who
responded to our question about adherence to the MHRA warning, over 60 % (239)
indicated that they would continue giving their children OTC-CCM. Furthermore,
as with the US sample, we found a positive correlation between trust and adherence.
Thus, UK parents exhibited similar tendencies to those expressed by their US coun-
terparts. Not only did a sizeable minority not hear about the MHRA warning, but
those who had heard the warning did not seem to place a great deal of trust in it, nor
were they likely to stop giving OTC-CCM to their children.
On the basis of our two studies (Hanoch et al.
2010
; Himmelstein et al.
2011
)
reviewed thus far, it appears that both the FDA and MHRA have had diffi culty
reaching their target audience and changing behavior. As above, one of the chal-
lenges facing the FDA and MHRA is the potential impact of varying levels of previ-
ous experience with OTC-CCM. Parents who have had extensive experience with
OTC-CCM might therefore be more likely to ignore the FDA recommendation. Our
third study (Miron-Shatz et al.
2010
) examined the effect of parental experience on
adherence to the FDA OTC-CCM warning.
By measuring adherence in parents with older children—who presumably have
more experience with colds and use of OTC-CCM in children under 2—and those
without older children, we were able to test the following hypothesis: behavioral
inertia due to safe experience with OTC-CCM would reduce adherence to the FDA
warning. In our study (Miron-Shatz et al.
2010
), we surveyed 218 parents of chil-
dren age 2 or younger who had heard of the FDA warning. Next, to examine the
impact of experience, we divided participants into two groups: experienced parents
(with older children in addition to a child age 2 or younger) and inexperienced par-
ents (with only a child age 2 or younger).
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