Consumer response to physicians’ advertisements

Although the Federal Trade Commission has initiated a number of rulings to reduce professional societies’ prohibitions against advertising in order to stimulate competition, there is little research regarding the subject. Certainly, this is true of the potential effects of doctors’ advertising. In this study, subjects received illustrative physicians’ advertisements with varying levels of price, service, and competency. In analysis with various attitudinal and intentional measures as dependent variables, these factors were shown to have statistical significance.