Europeans keen on medicines info – but not via Facebook or Twitter
pharmafile | December 8, 2011 | News story | Medical Communications | Digital Blog, Facebook
A new survey finds demand for information on medicines is strong in Europe, but consumers aren’t using social sites such as Facebook or Twitter for this purpose.
Manhattan Research’s Cybercitizen Health Europe 2011 study looked at how consumers use digital health and pharma information and tools.
Despite heavy restrictions on direct-to-consumer advertising in Europe, nearly 40% of online Europeans would like to learn more about prescription drugs directly from a pharmaceutical company, according to the new Cybercitizen Health Europe study from pharma and healthcare market research company Manhattan Research.
The survey explores how European consumers use digital health and pharma information and tools. The study was conducted online among 3,020 adults (ages 18+) in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain in Q3 2011. Major topics in the 2011 research include ‘multi-screen online health behaviour,’ online health information discovery, digital health media mix, prescription drug information seeking, and online pharma resources in Europe.
Key highlights around consumer interest in patient education from pharma companies include:
Demand for learning about prescription medicines from pharma varies: Online consumers in Italy show the strongest desire to learn about prescription drugs from pharma companies, while their counterparts in Germany are the least likely to be interested. Additionally, certain patient groups across Europe overall, such as online consumers diagnosed with acute pain, osteoporosis, and arrhythmia, show a higher interest in this type of information from pharma than the average online consumer.
Opportunity for pharma to provide practical patient education: Online consumers show much higher demand for practical online resources from pharmaceutical companies, such as disease and treatment information and condition management tools, than for online contests and games.
Lack of interest in pharma on Facebook and Twitter: Among consumers who are already using or interested in online information and tools from pharmaceutical companies, only 13% want to access this content on Facebook and 5% on Twitter. In contrast, 43% of this audience would like to obtain pharma resources from websites about conditions and diseases.
Cybercitizen Health Europe 2011 was conducted online in Q3 2011 among 3,020 adults (ages 18+) in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. More than 25 therapeutic categories are tracked in the research, including patient and caregiver groups.
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