The scientific information that the pharmaceutical industry provides to family doctors

• Published in: Atención primaria Vol. 36; no. 1; pp. 14 - 18
• Main Authors: Rivera Casares, F, Richart Rufino, M J, Navas Cutanda, J, Rodríguez Górriz, E, Gómez Moruno, C, Gómez García, B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Spain 15-06-2005
• Subjects: Advertising as Topic - standards; Cross-Sectional Studies; Drug Industry - standards; Drug Information Services; Humans; Physicians, Family
• ISSN: 0212-6567

To check whether the information in the written publicity that the pharmaceutical industry gives to family doctors really is based on the scientific studies that support it.
Cross-sectional study.
Health centre on the outskirts of a big city.
Over a year, all the scientific studies that laboratory reps gave family doctors along with the advertising for medicines were collected. A total of 63 paired studies and advertising pieces were obtained.
1-3 advertising messages with each supporting study were selected and reviewed in a structured fashion. Then whether or not the messages selected were based on the study was appraised.
44.5% of the advertising messages were not based on the accompanying study; 29.9% clearly were based on the study; and in the rest there was a half-and-half relationship. There was a significant relationship between the evaluation of the advertising messages and the kind of study, masking and the kind of result variable.
A high proportion of advertising messages are not based on the study that is reputed to support them. A critique of these studies has to be undertaken before the advertising messages can be looked at.