Healthy Skepticism Library item: 4703

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Herxheimer A, Lundborg CS, Westerholm B.
Advertisements for medicines in leading medical journals in 18 countries: a 12-month survey of information content and standards.
Int J Health Serv 1993; 23:(1):161-72

Abstract:

The information content of 6,710 advertisements for medicines in medicaljournals was surveyed to provide a baseline for monitoring the effect of WHO’s Ethical Criteria for Medicinal Drug Promotion. The advertisements
(ads) appeared during 12 months (1987-1988) in 23 leading national medicaljournals in 18 countries. Local participants, mostly doctors or pharmacists, examined them. The presence or absence in each ad of important information was noted. In most ads the generic name appeared in smaller type than the brand name. Indications were mentioned more often than the negative effects of medicines. The ads gave less pharmacological than medical information. However, important warnings and precautions were missing in half, and side effects and contraindications in about 40 percent. Prices tended to be given only in countries where a social security system pays for the medicines. The information content of ads in the developing countries differed surprisingly little from that in the industrialized countries. Almost all the ads (96 percent) included one or more pictures; 58 percent of these were considered irrelevant. The authors believe it is a mistake to regard ads as trivial. If they are not considered seriously they will influence the use of medicines as they are intended to do, but read critically they can provide useful information.

Keywords:
*analytic survey/journal advertisements/developing countries/developed countries/World Health Organization/WHO/Ethical Criteria for Medicinal Drug Promotion/images in ads/quality of information/International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Associations/IFPMA/EVALUATION OF PROMOTION: COMPARISON BETWEEN DEVELOPING AND DEVELOPED COUNTRIES/EVALUATION OF PROMOTION: JOURNAL ADVERTISEMENTS/REGULATION, CODES, GUIDELINES: INDUSTRY SELF-REGULATION/REGULATION, CODES, GUIDELINES: INTERNATIONAL CODES

Notes:

Earlier version published as: Andrew Herxheimer et al., Advertisements for medicines in medical journals: a collaborative international study.
Methodology note: This study only looked at the presence or absence of information not its quality. The analysis of the picture content of the advertisements was subjective. Material was abstracted by a single person in each country and this may have lead to biases. There was no reabstraction to check for consistency.