Long-term adherence to medications is often necessary to successfully control chronic conditions like hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia that are common among Latino/Hispanic populations. While much attention has been paid to addressing individual level factors that influence adherence in this population, less is known about societal level factors. A potentially important societal level factor is pharmaceutical industry marketing. Through its marketing practices, the pharmaceutical industry has significant potential to influence both patient and provider behaviors regarding choice of and continued use of medications.
The project outlined in this proposal will examine the influence of pharmaceutical marketing on health behaviors of low income Hispanic patients in New York City. We chose to focus on this population because as its members face particularly high prevalence rates of common chronic diseases as well as significant barriers to medication adherence.
Qualitative research strategies, mostly focus groups and in-depth interviews, will be used to explore attitudes/behaviors related to exposure to pharmaceutical marketing, and to compare them with attitudes/behaviors expressed by non-Hispanic white patients recruited from the same settings. The overall long-term goal of this project is to collect preliminary data necessary to develop a successful proposal for federal funding of a project that will examine these issues using a rigorous multi-method approach.
Principal Investigators: A. Viladrich, N. Sohler and N. Freudengerg
This project received funding from the CUNY Collaborative Incentive Grant (CIRG) Program for the period 2007-08