Healthy Skepticism Library item: 1792
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
Ahmed SB, Grace SL, Stelfox HT, Tomlinson G, Cheung AM.
Portrayal of female physicians in cardiovascular advertisements.
Can J Cardiol 2004 Nov; 20:(13):1351-4
Abstract:
BACKGROUND: Despite increasing numbers of female medical school graduates, few women enter cardiovascular specialties. Pharmaceutical promotion may influence physician behaviour. It is unclear how female physicians are represented in cardiovascular advertisements, which may, in turn, influence physician perceptions. OBJECTIVES: To determine if female and male physicians are equally represented in cardiovascular advertisements. METHODS: All cardiovascular advertisements from American editions of general medical and cardiovascular journals published between January 1, 1996, and June 30, 1998, were examined. For each unique advertisement, the total number of journal appearances and the number of appearances in journals’ premium positions were recorded. The role, sex, age and race of the primary figure featured in the advertisement were noted. RESULTS: Nine hundred nineteen unique advertisements were identified, 35 of which depicted a physician as the primary figure. Six (17%, 95% CI 8.1% to 32.7%) of these advertisements portrayed a female physician, while 29 (83%, 95% CI 67.3% to 91.9%) depicted a male physician (P<0.001). Female physician advertisements appeared in journals 39 times (20.7%; 95% CI 2.8% to 43.5%), while male physician advertisements appeared 149 times (79.3%; 95% CI 56.5% to 97.2%) (P=0.01). The odds ratio for a female physician advertisement appearing in a premium position compared with a male physician advertisement was 0.25 (95% CI 0.09 to 0.68). CONCLUSION: The relative paucity of female physicians in cardiovascular advertisements is a concern because it may both reflect and reinforce sex asymmetries in cardiovascular specialties.
Keywords:
Adult
Advertising/statistics & numerical data*
Cardiology*
Confidence Intervals
Data Collection
Female
Humans
Incidence
Male
Middle Aged
Observer Variation
Ontario
Periodicals
Physicians, Women/statistics & numerical data*
Probability
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Sex Factors
