Healthy Skepticism Library item: 8230

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

Rothermich EA, Pathak DS.
References for health-related quality-of-life claims in prescription drug advertisements.
Am J Health Syst Pharm 1997 Nov 15; 54:(22):2596-9
http://www.ajhp.org/cgi/reprint/54/22/2596

Abstract:

To determine the percentage of prescription drug advertisements with health-related quality of life (HRQOL) claims that provided retrievable references, 26 different advertisements with claims from 3 medical journals in 1992 were collected and evaluated. Twenty-four of the advertisements contained implicit claims, and the remaining 2 advertisements contained explicit claims. Fewer than half of the prescription drug advertisements in the 3 journals with HRQOL claims provided readily retrievable references. In general, the claims with references appeared to be adequately supported by those references.

Keywords:
Advertising* Drug Industry Prescriptions, Drug* Quality of Life*