OBJECTIVES: The mode by which patients receive information may impact their perception of drugs and consequently their compliance. This study aims to measure how different presentation factors (format - textual, tabular, graphical; order of presenting risks and benefits) and patient characteristics can impact perception of a drug's risks and benefits. METHODS: Data were collected via an online questionnaire presenting two drug options to patients in three therapeutic areas: atrial fibrillation, breast cancer, diabetes. Two questions were asked on the safety and the willingness to take the drug. A novel Generalized Estimating Equation method for correlated multinomial data proposed by Touloumis et al., 2013 was used to create an ordinal cumulative link model for the questions on perception. Factors controlled for were: presentation format, order of presentation of risks and benefits, comprehension of drug's effects by the subject, order of presentation of different formats, current mood, and demographic characteristics. RESULTS: Drug perception was highly modified by a number of factors, most significantly order of presentation of risks and benefits and comprehension of a drug's risks and benefits. Showing the favourable effects first could halve the odds ratio of a more negative score, with all other factors held constant. Better comprehension always led to more positive perception. Other significant factors included negative mood at time of answering and number of other formats already shown, both leading to more negative answers. Impact of presentation type was highly dependent on the therapeutic area. CONCLUSIONS: The perception of a drug’s benefit-risk can be heavily impacted by how it is presented to the patient. These results underline the importance of using an understandable presentation format in the communication of benefits and risks of drugs in order to support patients to make informed decisions regarding their treatment choice.