Assessing the relationship of attitude toward the ad to intentions to use direct-to-consumer drugs: A systematic quantitative meta-analysis

Attitude toward the ad (Aad) is widely known to be an essential predictor of behavioral intentions. Therefore, a number of studies have addressed Aad in the DTCA literature. Despite this interest in Aad, there has not been a comprehensive attempt to investigate general findings across independent DTCA studies. Such an investigation is useful in understanding the general strength and variability of the relationships. In the current meta-analysis, the data provided a summary of 278 samples reported in the 36 articles for which the author could obtain usable data. The aggregated study effects suggested a significant relationship between Aad and a number of important constructs, including both antecedents (education and income) and consequences (behavioral intention). The results from the current meta-analysis suggest that Aad is a statistically significant predictor of behavioral intentions, but that Aad has a small to moderate effect size in terms of affecting consumers’ intentions.