Healthy Skepticism Library item: 9215

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

Emmerton L, Gow DJ, Benrimoj SI.
Dimensions of pharmacists' preferences for cough and cold products
International Journal of Pharmacy Practice 1994 Oct; 3:

Abstract:

To develop a comprehensive list of potential influences on pharmacists’ preferences for non-prescription cough and cold products, qualitative methods and review of the literature were used to develop a list of 42 influences on pharmacists’ preferences for these products; a mail survey of 1200 community pharmacists followed. Sixty-six percent of pharmacists responded. Factor analysis reduced the 42 influences to 7 factors, namely, advertising (13.65%), non-scientific (product; 6.96%), non-scientific (social; 4.7%), financial (31.3%), experience/economics (2.86%), clinical (2.15%) and restriction/ingredients (1.61%) influences. It was concluded that these factors indicate the dimensions of pharmacists’ preference for non-prescription cough and cold products and may be further analyzed to determine their relative influence in explaining preference for specific products.