A significant proportion of overweight or obese patients don’t find pharmaceutical ads about weight-management products relatable, nor do they look to those ads for information about managing their weight, according to a recent survey, suggesting that pharmas have a ways to go in gaining the trust of those patients.
The survey, conducted by Phreesia and Klick Health, comprised nearly 3,000 individuals with a body mass index of 27 or higher; a BMI of at least 25 is generally classified as overweight, while 30 or higher may qualify as obesity, though BMI is increasingly recognized as an overly simplified metric that may not accurately convey a patient’s body composition or overall health.
The survey’s results were published in a new report aimed at offering insights to healthcare providers and drugmakers to better tailor their outreach and support for people with overweight and obesity.
Of those surveyed, around one-third said they don’t rely at all on a healthcare provider or specialist to help with their weight management, and by far the most popular approach to weight management across the group was lifestyle change, which more than 80% of the group said they’d tried in the past and around two-thirds were currently implementing.
Meanwhile, fewer than 10% said they were currently using over-the-counter or prescription medications to help with weight loss while past use of prescription treatments ranged from 9% among those with overweight BMIs to just over 20% for those with a BMI of 40 or higher.
In general, the survey respondents cited low levels of trust in pharma ads when it came to looking for information about weight management. Fewer than 20% of those with BMIs below 40 ranked the ads in their top three most trusted sources, though the number rose to 28% among those with BMIs above that cutoff.
Across the board, pharma ads were far outranked by fitness and exercise media, including blogs, magazines and websites, as well as diet and nutrition media and plans, like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig—which the report’s authors noted aligns with the respondents’ overwhelming reliance on lifestyle changes to manage their weight, rather than clinical approaches.
Likely contributing to the lack of trust in pharma ads about weight-management products or medications was the common sentiment among many respondents that the promos don’t accurately represent them or their experiences. More than 40% of patients either “somewhat” or “strongly” disagreed with the statement that pharma ads “reflect the experiences of individuals who are overweight,” and even more disagreed with the idea that the ads “show real people who look like me and whom I can relate to.”
Overall, around half of respondents at least somewhat disagreed with the statement that pharmaceutical companies “understand the unique needs of individuals who are overweight.”
To improve their standing among people with overweight and obesity, then, the report’s authors suggested that pharmas craft “deeper storytelling” that better reflects a diversity of experiences and attitudes around weight management. “The pharmaceutical industry has an opportunity to deepen its understanding of this patient group’s needs and enhance communications to convey this understanding in a relatable way,” they wrote.
Plus, per the report, in addition to creating a more relatable outreach strategy, pharmas could also build more patient trust by providing especially helpful materials: The survey found that respondents are specifically looking for more educational resources about weight gain and the weight management methods available to them, and about financial support that may help cover those methods.