Quality of pharmaceutical advertisements in medical journals: a systematic review.

<h4>Background</h4>Journal advertising is one of the main sources of medicines information to doctors. Despite the availability of regulations and controls of drug promotion worldwide, information on medicines provided in journal advertising has been criticized in several studies for bei...

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Autores principales: Noordin Othman, Agnes Vitry, Elizabeth E Roughead
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Publicado: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2009
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Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/64e116e6f2574914b55fe9beffc6cc3c
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:64e116e6f2574914b55fe9beffc6cc3c2021-11-25T06:21:29ZQuality of pharmaceutical advertisements in medical journals: a systematic review.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0006350https://doaj.org/article/64e116e6f2574914b55fe9beffc6cc3c2009-07-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/19623259/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203<h4>Background</h4>Journal advertising is one of the main sources of medicines information to doctors. Despite the availability of regulations and controls of drug promotion worldwide, information on medicines provided in journal advertising has been criticized in several studies for being of poor quality. However, no attempt has been made to systematically summarise this body of research. We designed this systematic review to assess all studies that have examined the quality of pharmaceutical advertisements for prescription products in medical and pharmacy journals.<h4>Methods and findings</h4>Studies were identified via searching electronic databases, web library, search engine and reviewing citations (1950 - February 2006). Only articles published in English and examined the quality of information included in pharmaceutical advertisements for prescription products in medical or pharmacy journals were included. For each eligible article, a researcher independently extracted the data on the study methodology and outcomes. The data were then reviewed by a second researcher. Any disagreements were resolved by consensus. The data were analysed descriptively. The final analysis included 24 articles. The studies reviewed advertisements from 26 countries. The number of journals surveyed in each study ranged from four to 24 journals. Several outcome measures were examined including references and claims provided in advertisements, availability of product information, adherence to codes or guidelines and presentation of risk results. The majority of studies employed a convenience-sampling method. Brand name, generic name and indications were usually provided. Journal articles were commonly cited to support pharmaceutical claims. Less than 67% of the claims were supported by a systematic review, a meta-analysis or a randomised control trial. Studies that assessed misleading claims had at least one advertisement with a misleading claim. Two studies found that less than 28% of claims were unambiguous clinical claims. Most advertisements with quantitative information provided risk results as relative risk reduction. Studies were conducted in 26 countries only and then the generalizability of the results is limited.<h4>Conclusions</h4>Evidence from this review indicates that low quality of journal advertising is a global issue. As information provided in journal advertising has the potential to change doctors' prescribing behaviour, ongoing efforts to increase education about drug promotion are crucial. The results from our review suggest the need for a global pro-active and effective regulatory system to ensure that information provided in medical journal advertising is supporting the quality use of medicines.Noordin OthmanAgnes VitryElizabeth E RougheadPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 4, Iss 7, p e6350 (2009)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Medicine
R
Science
Q
spellingShingle Medicine
R
Science
Q
Noordin Othman
Agnes Vitry
Elizabeth E Roughead
Quality of pharmaceutical advertisements in medical journals: a systematic review.
description <h4>Background</h4>Journal advertising is one of the main sources of medicines information to doctors. Despite the availability of regulations and controls of drug promotion worldwide, information on medicines provided in journal advertising has been criticized in several studies for being of poor quality. However, no attempt has been made to systematically summarise this body of research. We designed this systematic review to assess all studies that have examined the quality of pharmaceutical advertisements for prescription products in medical and pharmacy journals.<h4>Methods and findings</h4>Studies were identified via searching electronic databases, web library, search engine and reviewing citations (1950 - February 2006). Only articles published in English and examined the quality of information included in pharmaceutical advertisements for prescription products in medical or pharmacy journals were included. For each eligible article, a researcher independently extracted the data on the study methodology and outcomes. The data were then reviewed by a second researcher. Any disagreements were resolved by consensus. The data were analysed descriptively. The final analysis included 24 articles. The studies reviewed advertisements from 26 countries. The number of journals surveyed in each study ranged from four to 24 journals. Several outcome measures were examined including references and claims provided in advertisements, availability of product information, adherence to codes or guidelines and presentation of risk results. The majority of studies employed a convenience-sampling method. Brand name, generic name and indications were usually provided. Journal articles were commonly cited to support pharmaceutical claims. Less than 67% of the claims were supported by a systematic review, a meta-analysis or a randomised control trial. Studies that assessed misleading claims had at least one advertisement with a misleading claim. Two studies found that less than 28% of claims were unambiguous clinical claims. Most advertisements with quantitative information provided risk results as relative risk reduction. Studies were conducted in 26 countries only and then the generalizability of the results is limited.<h4>Conclusions</h4>Evidence from this review indicates that low quality of journal advertising is a global issue. As information provided in journal advertising has the potential to change doctors' prescribing behaviour, ongoing efforts to increase education about drug promotion are crucial. The results from our review suggest the need for a global pro-active and effective regulatory system to ensure that information provided in medical journal advertising is supporting the quality use of medicines.
format article
author Noordin Othman
Agnes Vitry
Elizabeth E Roughead
author_facet Noordin Othman
Agnes Vitry
Elizabeth E Roughead
author_sort Noordin Othman
title Quality of pharmaceutical advertisements in medical journals: a systematic review.
title_short Quality of pharmaceutical advertisements in medical journals: a systematic review.
title_full Quality of pharmaceutical advertisements in medical journals: a systematic review.
title_fullStr Quality of pharmaceutical advertisements in medical journals: a systematic review.
title_full_unstemmed Quality of pharmaceutical advertisements in medical journals: a systematic review.
title_sort quality of pharmaceutical advertisements in medical journals: a systematic review.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate 2009
url https://doaj.org/article/64e116e6f2574914b55fe9beffc6cc3c
work_keys_str_mv AT noordinothman qualityofpharmaceuticaladvertisementsinmedicaljournalsasystematicreview
AT agnesvitry qualityofpharmaceuticaladvertisementsinmedicaljournalsasystematicreview
AT elizabetheroughead qualityofpharmaceuticaladvertisementsinmedicaljournalsasystematicreview
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