This study analysed a subset of pharmaceuticalrelated and health-related questions from a large online survey covering a range of attitudes, behaviour, consumption and lifestyle questions. All respondents (2057 community-living NZ adults) were deemed to be demographically representative of the general population as regard to age, sex, education, ethnicity and income. The study researchers explored the factors determining individuals’ self-reported behavioural responses to direct to consumer advertising of prescription drugs (asking a physician for a prescription, asking a physician for more information about an illness, searching the internet for more information regarding an illness and asking a pharmacist for more information about a drug). In particular, the study examined whether ‘at-risk’ individuals (i.e. with poorer self-reported health status, older, less educated, lower income and ethnic minorities), may be more vulnerable to drug advertising and may make uninformed decisions accordingly. In multivariate logistic regression analyses, identifying as Indian and to a less extent Chinese, Māori and ‘other’ ethnicities were the strongest predictors of one or more self-reported responses (ORs 1.76–5.00; all p<0.05). Poorer self-reported health status (ORs 0.90–0.94; all p<0.05), favourable attitude towards drug advertising (ORs 1.34–1.61; all p<0.001) and searching for medical information online (ORs 1.32–2.35; all p<0.01) predicted all self-reported behavioural outcomes. Older age (ORs 1.01–1.02; all p<0.01), less education (OR 0.89; p<0.01), lower income (ORs 0.89–0.91; all p<0.05) and higher materialism (ORs 1.02–1.03; all p<0.01) also predicted one or more self-reported responses.
