A REASONED ACTION APPROACH TO PHYSICIANS UTILIZATION OF DRUG INFORMATION-SOURCES

Purpose. The effects of attitude and subjective norm were investigated on physicians' intention to use seven drug information sources: the P DR, medical textbooks, medical journals/newsletters, pharmaceutical ma nufacturers' literature, pharmaceutical manufacturers' representatives , other physicians, and pharmacists. The effects of past behavior and practice characteristics were also examined. Methods. An eight-page ma il questionnaire queried health maintenance organization physicians on their intention to use, attitude (emotional response) and subjective norm (colleagues' approval/disapproval) toward use of each source when searching for drug information on a fictitious, new H-2 antagonist ag ent. Results. Responses were received from 54% (108) of the 200 physic ians surveyed. positive attitudes toward use had the greatest influenc e upon intention to use each of the sources (b greater than or equal t o .40) (except for pharmacists, for which subjective norm was the most important predictor (b = .31)). Past behavior directly affected inten tion to use the PDR (b = .27), and pharmaceutical manufacturers' liter ature (b = .26). The effects of attitude and/or subjective norm on int ention to use non-commercial sources of drug information were moderate d by the practice characteristics. Conclusions. These findings suggest that physicians' use of drug information sources is strongly influenc ed by their attitudes toward use. In addition, the importance of situa tional contingencies should not be overlooked when investigating the u se of drug information sources.