Differences in the Volume of Pharmaceutical Advertisements between Print General Medical Journals: e84790

Background Pharmaceutical advertisements have been argued to provide revenue that medical journals require but they are intended to alter prescribing behaviour and they are known to include low quality information. We determined whether a difference exists in the current level of pharmaceutical adve...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2014-01, Vol.9 (1)
Main Authors: Gettings, Jennifer, Chokshi, Dave A, Colbert, James A, Gill, Peter, Lebovic, Gerald, Lexchin, Joel, Persaud, Navindra
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Background Pharmaceutical advertisements have been argued to provide revenue that medical journals require but they are intended to alter prescribing behaviour and they are known to include low quality information. We determined whether a difference exists in the current level of pharmaceutical advertising in print general medical journals, and we estimated the revenue generated from print pharmaceutical advertising. Methods Six print general medical journals in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom were sampled between 2007 and 2012. The number of advertisements and other journal content in selected issues of the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), Canadian Family Physician (CFP), Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), British Medical Journal (BMJ), and Lancet were determined. Revenue gained from pharmaceutical advertising was estimated using each journal's 2013 advertising price list. Findings The two Canadian journals sampled (CMAJ, CFP) contained five times more advertisements than the two American journals (JAMA, NEJM), and two British journals (BMJ, Lancet) (p
ISSN:1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0084790