The study found that the top ways consumers prefer to see prescription-drug risk disclosures presented online are:

• Direct links to an independent website such as WebMD (32%).
• Having a condensed version of risk disclosures available one click away (27%).
• A direct link to a pharmaceutical company that provides the information (26%).
• A direct link to a government website that provides the information (25%).

It seems that the lack of attention to risk information was highest in those 55+.

Interestingly, the chief research officer for the study by ORC guideline suggested that:

“As consumers utilize a wide variety of sources to learn about prescription medications, it may not be optimal for the FDA to require that pharmaceutical companies include the same details in each of the channels they use to communicate information about their prescription drug products.”

The value of independent websites in providing accurate and fair balanced information is growing in importance, especially as the study also demonstrated that only half (50%) pay attention to disclosures in print ads. Whether this is due to information overload or the small size of the print is, however, unclear.