An Empirical Analysis of Consumers' Attitudes Toward Physicians' Advertising

Advertising by physicians is a relatively recent phenomenon. Historically, most professions prohibited licensed members from engaging in speech activities that proposed a commercial transaction-advertising. However the history of a physician's legal right to advertise is not the main focus of this article. A brief review of the past, present, and possible future of such rights might assist readers in understanding the revolutionary constitutional and commercial speech changes that have occurred over the past three decades. A physician's legal right to advertise has developed as part of the evolutionary interpretation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The purposes of this study were to determine (a) consumers' attitudes toward advertising by physicians and (b) whether city of residence, occupation, age, sex, race, marital status, number of children in household, total family household income, and education of the consumer accounted for any significant difference in attitude toward physicians who advertise. The intent was to discover information that would be useful to physicians in planning marketing strategies and improving the quality of their advertising. The study seems to confirm the belief of many marketing professionals that advertising and marketing clearly have a place in the future of health care services.