In this article, we examine the portrayal of non-drug related health risks and patient empowerment messages in prescription drug advertising. Little is known about the social construction of non-drug related risks in direct-to-consumer advertisements. In addition, research has failed to investigate to what extent, and how, prescription drug ads use risk messages to construct understandings of empowered medicated patients. To fill these gaps in research, we conducted a content analysis of 136 US prescription drug advertisements that aired on television from 2014–2015. Drawing on the reflexive modernisation framework, we find that ads go beyond disclosing the risks associated with taking the promoted drug by emphasising the risks associated with not taking the prescribed drug. Ads empower patients in two distinct ways, through ‘health empowerment’ and ‘lifestyle empowerment’. These forms of empowerment are portrayed as natural responses to health and lifestyle risks. We also describe two types of ads: medical need and lifestyle ads. The former emphasises health empowerment, and the latter exhibits strong themes of lifestyle empowerment. We extend the findings of previous research by pinpointing how drug companies use risk messages as a strategy to motivate, rather than deter, audiences to learn more about a promoted treatment and by identifying the different marketing strategies used in prescription drug ads based on the lifestyle status of a drug. Our research provides a clearer understanding of the relationship between the presentation of health risks and reflexive modernisation, patient empowerment, and health lifestyles in the risk society.

在本文中，我们研究了与非药物相关的健康风险以及处方药广告中患者授权信息的描述。对直接面向消费者的广告中与毒品无关的风险的社会建构知之甚少。此外，研究未能调查处方药广告在多大程度上以及如何利用风险信息来构建对授权药物治疗患者的理解。为了填补这些研究空白，我们对2014年至2015年在电视上播出的136个美国处方药广告进行了内容分析。利用反思性现代化框架，我们发现广告不仅仅通过强调与不服用处方药有关的风险来披露与服用推广药物有关的风险。广告通过两种截然不同的方式增强了患者的能力，通过“增强健康”和“增强生活方式”。这些形式的授权被描绘为对健康和生活方式风险的自然反应。我们还描述了两种广告：医疗需求广告和生活方式广告。前者强调增强健康能力，而后者则强调增强生活方式的主题。我们通过指出药品公司如何利用风险信息作为激励而不是阻止受众了解更多关于推广治疗的策略，以及根据生活方式来确定处方药广告中使用的不同营销策略，来扩展以前的研究结果。一种药物。我们的研究对风险社会中健康风险的呈现与反思性现代化，患者赋权以及健康生活方式之间的关系有了更清晰的了解。