Simple heuristics in over-the-counter drug choices: a new hint for medical education and practice

dc.creator	Silvia Riva
dc.creator	Marco Monti
dc.creator	Alessandro Antonietti
dc.date	2011-02-01T00:00:00Z
dc.date.accessioned	2015-07-20T22:24:04Z
dc.date.available	2015-07-20T22:24:04Z
dc.identifier	1179-7258
dc.identifier	https://doaj.org/article/b55fc293573a4e719bc375d943cd00b2
dc.identifier.uri	http://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/21106
dc.description	Silvia Riva1&ndash;3, Marco Monti2, Alessandro Antonietti11Department of Psychology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan, Milan, Italy; 2Department for Adaptive Behaviour and Cognition, Max Planck Institute for Human Development Berlin, Germany; 3Department of Medicine and Medical Specialities, ABB Centre, University of Milan and IRCCS Ca&rsquo; Granda Foundation, Maggiore Hospital, Milan, ItalyIntroduction: Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs are widely available and often purchased by consumers without advice from a health care provider. Many people rely on self-management of medications to treat common medical conditions. Although OTC medications are regulated by the National and the International Health and Drug Administration, many people are unaware of proper dosing, side effects, adverse drug reactions, and possible medication interactions.Purpose: This study examined how subjects make their decisions to select an OTC drug, evaluating the role of cognitive heuristics which are simple and adaptive rules that help the decision-making process of people in everyday contexts.Subjects and methods: By analyzing 70 subjects&rsquo; information-search and decision-making behavior when selecting OTC drugs, we examined the heuristics they applied in order to assess whether simple decision-making processes were also accurate and relevant. Subjects were tested with a sequence of two experimental tests based on a computerized Java system devised to analyze participants&rsquo; choices in a virtual environment.Results: We found that subjects&rsquo; information-search behavior reflected the use of fast and frugal heuristics. In addition, although the heuristics which correctly predicted subjects&rsquo; decisions implied significantly fewer cues on average than the subjects did in the information-search task, they were accurate in describing order of information search. A simple combination of a fast and frugal tree and a tallying rule predicted more than 78% of subjects&rsquo; decisions.Conclusion: The current emphasis in health care is to shift some responsibility onto the consumer through expansion of self medication. To know which cognitive mechanisms are behind the choice of OTC drugs is becoming a relevant purpose of current medical education. These findings have implications both for the validity of simple heuristics describing information searches in the field of OTC drug choices and for current medical education, which has to prepare competent health specialists to orientate and support the choices of their patients.Keywords: fast and frugal heuristics treatment, OTC drugs, decision-tree, decision making&nbsp;
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	Dove Press
dc.relation	http://www.dovepress.com/simple-heuristics-in-over-the-counter-drug-choices-a-new-hint-for-medi-a6371
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/1179-7258
dc.source	Advances in Medical Education and Practice, Vol 2011, Iss default, Pp 59-70 (2011)
dc.subject	Medicine (General)
dc.subject	R5-920
dc.subject	Medicine
dc.subject	R
dc.subject	DOAJ:Medicine (General)
dc.subject	DOAJ:Health Sciences
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Medicine (General)
dc.subject	R5-920
dc.subject	Medicine
dc.subject	R
dc.subject	DOAJ:Medicine (General)
dc.subject	DOAJ:Health Sciences
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Medicine (General)
dc.subject	R5-920
dc.subject	Medicine
dc.subject	R
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Medicine (General)
dc.subject	R5-920
dc.subject	Medicine
dc.subject	R
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Medicine (General)
dc.subject	R5-920
dc.subject	Medicine
dc.subject	R
dc.subject	Special aspects of education
dc.subject	LC8-6691
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.title	Simple heuristics in over-the-counter drug choices: a new hint for medical education and practice
dc.type	article