MORAN L, GILAD J, BORER A, MEYDAN N, SCHLAEFFER F; Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (42nd : 2002 : San Diego, Calif.).
Abstr Intersci Conf Antimicrob Agents Chemother Intersci Conf Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2002 Sep 27-30; 42: abstract no. O-1012.
Soroka Univ. Med. Ctr., Beer-Sheva, Israel
BACKGROUND: Drug advertisements (DA) in medical journals (MJ) are a leading strategy for marketing of pharmaceutical products. Our aim was to assess whether DA of antibiotics (DA-AB) differed from those of other agents (DAO). METHODS: We analyzed the features of DA published in the first 3 issues of year 2000 in 24 leading MJ (total 72 issues, 779 DA). DA-AB were compared to DAO by univariate analysis. RESULTS: Of 779 DA analyzed, 194 (25%) promoted antibiotics. Compared to DAO, DA-AB were more likely to appear in pediatric MJ (40% vs 16%, p<0.001) but less in MJ of surgery and internal medicine (34% vs 48% and 13.5% vs 27%, respectively, p<0.001). There was no significant difference in the presentation of statistical analyses (7% vs 11%), tables and figures (14% vs 15%), and scientific references (56% vs 52%). DA-AB were less likely to feature a human character (29% vs 45%, p<0.001). There were no differences regarding the identity, race or gender of featured humans. Humans featured in DA-AB were more likely to show satisfaction after therapy (14% vs 2%, p=0.005) and exhibit sleepiness (5% vs 0%, p=0.01). DA-AB was less likely to contain prescribing information (80% vs 86%, p<0.03). There were no differences in the pictorials presented. DA-AB were more likely to present their product as one that fights disease strongly (25% vs 12%, p<0.001) and convenient for use (9% vs 4%, p=0.04) and less likely as one that provides solutions (2% vs 11%, p<0.001). Conclusion: There seem to be several promotional features of DA-AB that differ from those of other drugs that may possible influence AB consumption. The lack of focus on the risks of AB resistance in an era of emerging multi-resistant bacteria is most worrisome and strategies to prevent inappropriate AB consumption secondary to DA are urgently needed.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- 4-Acetamido-4'-isothiocyanatostilbene-2,2'-disulfonic Acid
- Advertising as Topic
- Anti-Bacterial Agents
- Child
- Humans
- Penicillins
- Periodicals
- Pharmaceutical Preparations
- Prescriptions, Drug
- Publishing
- amsonic acid
- instrumentation
- surgery
Other ID:
UI: 102268091
From Meeting Abstracts