Millennials Trust Pharma Social Media, Mobile Apps & Advertising a Hell of a Lot More Than Their Geezer Parents!

According to findings released today from the Fifth Annual Makovsky/Kelton “Pulse of Online Health” Survey, the percentage of Americans who trust pharma-sponsored social media "a lot" or "completely" increased from 17% in 2014 to 21% in 2015.

The same survey also revealed another trend: In 2010, 88% of Americans were willing to visit a pharma-sponsored Web site (e.g., a drug.com site), whereas in 2015 that percentage decreased to 80%.

Fielded in January 2015 to 1,015 nationally representative Americans ages 18 and older by Kelton, the Makovsky Health survey investigated consumers’ behavior and preferences for engaging with online healthcare information. The margin of error is +/- 3.1 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

Meanwhile, a Prevention Magazine 2011 survey found that 49 percent of respondents who went online for prescription drug information reported seeking this information on a specific brand's Web site. As a consequence of this influence of the Internet, FDA is currently studying how consumers interact with drug.com websites (read this Pharma Marketing News article: Are Drug.com Websites "Fair and Balanced?").

Before commenting on the above results, let me summarize a few other “Pulse of Online Health” Survey results -- especially those related to mobile and wearable devices -- that may be of interest to you.

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