'Viagra (R) effect' - Influence of mass media on patient behavior

Introduction: The effects of modern mass media and communication on the pub lic health system are well known. So far however, these different influence s of the media have not been objectively evaluated by physician-patient con tacts. Patients and Methods: In this study we asked urologists, primary car e physicians and internists in private practices in Cologne and a rural are a (Erftkreis, Germany) to quantify their weekly contacts with patients suff ering from erectile dysfunction (ED). The poll was conducted by four separa tely mailed questionnaires whereas a double counting was avoided. Between t he second and third mailing, an unbelievable public attention was seen foll owing the FDA approval of Viagra (R) in the United States. When Viagra was available in Germany, a fourth questionnaire was sent (4 months later) to a ll practitioners (n = 751). Results: During this time span, there was a sta tistically (p less than or equal to 0.01; t test) significant increase in w eekly physician-patient contacts (WPC; 13.1-19.1 WPC for urologists, 4.4-5. 5 WPC for general practitioners/internists) for ED in the region of Cologne -Erftkreis. In the fourth mailing, there was a slight decrease, but overall WPC was still higher compared to the first two mailings (17 WPC for urolog ists, 5.2 WPC for other specialists). Conclusions: Our investigation shows that urologists are accepted as the competent advisory partners for therapy with Viagra (R). This was seen by the higher increase (20.1%) in patient c ontacts with urologists in comparison to colleagues of other medical discip lines (45.8 vs. 25.7% between mailing 1+2 and 3). In this investigation we were able to demonstrate the effects of mass media on patient behavior. Cop yright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.