• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.103-113
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• 2012

In the U.S. where Direct-to-Consumer Advertising (DTCA) of prescription medications is permitted, spending on DTCA has been accelerating. As a result, it has been an issue of intense public policy attention regarding whether DTCA is beneficial to the public by promoting a healthy lifestyle. Most of the literature concerning DTCA focuses on its impact on demand and empirical evidence regarding its impact on health-related behavior is scant. This study uses a database of DTCAs for high blood cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes, and overweight treatment medications that have appeared in nationally circulated U.S. consumer magazines during 2000 to 2004 and the Simmons National Consumer Survey in order to compute the level of individual advertising exposure and examines whether those who are exposed to DTCA are more likely to engage in regular exercise and diet control. The study finds evidence that for those with chronic conditions, greater exposure to DTCA leads to less exercise but more diet control. By therapeutic class level, exposure to DTCA leads to less exercise for those with hypertension and who are overweight, whereas those with high blood cholesterol are more likely to engage in regular exercise. Looking into differential responses by socioeconomic status, those with less education are more likely to engage in exercise after being exposed to DTCA. The results imply that the effects of DTCA vary by therapeutic class. In order to enhance the benefits of DTCA, it is important to closely monitor the messages in DTCA and require it to include messages that promote lifestyle change should it be a part of the treatment.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.410-417
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• 2010

Various functional foods, marketing health and functional effects, have been distributed in the market. These products, being in forms of foods, tablets, and capsules, are likely to be mistaken as drugs. In addition, non-experts may sell these as foods, or use these for therapy. Efforts for creating health food regulations or building regulatory system for improving the current status of functional foods have been made, but these have not been communicated to consumers yet. As a result, problems of circulating functional foods for therapy or adding illegal medical to such products have persisted, which has become worse by internet media. The cause of this problem can be categorized into (1) product itself and (2) its use, but in either case, one possible cause is lack of communications with consumers. Potential problems that can be caused by functional foods include illegal substances, hazardous substances, allergic reactions, considerations when administered to patients, drug interactions, ingredients with purity or concentrations too low to be detected, products with metabolic activations, health risks from over- or under-dose of vitamin and minerals, and products with alkaloids. (Journal of Health Science, 56, Supplement (2010)). The reason why side effects related to functional foods have been increasing is that under-qualified functional food companies are exaggerating the functionality for marketing purposes. KFDA has been informing consumers, through its web pages, to address the above mentioned issues related to functional foods, but there still is room for improvement, to promote proper use of functional foods and avoid drug interactions. Specifically, to address these issues, institutionalizing to collect information on approved products and their side effects, settling reevaluation systems, and standardizing preclinical tests and clinical tests are becoming urgent. Also to provide crucial information, unified database systems, seamlessly aggregating heterogeneous data in different domains, with user interfaces enabling effective one-stop search, are crucial.