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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Drugs Outcomes Research and Policies
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1466352
This article is part of the Research Topic Using Behavioral Theories to Improve Medication Use View all 11 articles

Consumers' Expected Information Search Behavior for a Pharmaceutical Treatment

Provisionally accepted
Yifei Liu Yifei Liu 1*Jack E Fincham Jack E Fincham 2Morgan L Sperry Morgan L Sperry 1
  • 1 Division of Pharmacy Practice and Administration, University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Pharmacy, Kansas City, Kansas, United States
  • 2 Osher Life Long Learning Institute, The University of Arizona, Tucson , Arizona, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: The Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking (CMIS) integrates multiple factors influencing information seeking. This study was to identify factors impacting consumers’ expected information search behavior for a pharmaceutical treatment. By examining the predictive utility of these factors, the CMIS could be improved in the context of health information search.Methods: A telephone interview was administered to a random-digit-dialed sample of 2,186 adult residents in a southern U.S. state. Measurements included expected information search for a pharmaceutical treatment within the next two weeks, self-rated health (SRH), extraversion, and demographics. A logistic regression was conducted, in which the outcome variable was the expected information search for a pharmaceutical treatment, and covariates were SRH, extraversion, and demographics. Results: A total of 505 individuals participated. On average, they were 57 years old, and 61% of them were female. Fourteen percent of them expected to seek information a pharmaceutical treatment. The logistic regression was significant (p<0.01). SRH was a significant negative predictor (p<0.05) and gender (female) was a significant positive predictor for the expected information seeking behavior (p<0.05). Conclusions: Consumers with a lower SRH score and women were more likely to perform expected information search for a pharmaceutical treatment. These findings have implications for both the modification of the CMIS and the provision of healthcare interventions.

    Keywords: information search, information seeking, consumer behavior, health information, Pharmaceutical treatment, medication

    Received: 17 Jul 2024; Accepted: 09 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Fincham and Sperry. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yifei Liu, Division of Pharmacy Practice and Administration, University of Missouri – Kansas City School of Pharmacy, Kansas City, Kansas, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.