Drug advertising and health habits

"We examine the effect of direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of drug treatment on two important health habits, smoking and exercise, using the 1997-2001 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), the National Health Insurance Survey (NHIS), and MSA-level DTCA data. We find that the DTCA of tobacco cessation products increases the tendency to smoke for insured people with college education. Similarly, the DTCA related to four chronic conditions reduces the likelihood to engage in moderate exercise. These findings suggest that DTCA does not only affect pharmaceutical demand in the short-run, but also have long-run impacts on people's health by affecting their health habits"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.