Pharmaceutical brochures in Lebanon: do they meet WHO recommendations?

Springer Science and Business Media LLC - Tập 23 Số 1 - Trang 1-8 - 2022
Fadoul, Yara1, Haddad, Chadia2,3,4, Habib, Jad1, Zoghbi, Marouan1,2
1Family Medicine Department, Saint Joseph University, Beirut, Lebanon
2Psychiatric Hospital of the Cross, Jal Eddib, Lebanon
3INSPECT-LB (Institut National de Santé Publique, d’Épidémiologie Clinique Et de Toxicologie-Liban), Beirut, Lebanon
4School of Health Sciences, Modern University for Business and Science, Beirut, Lebanon

Tóm tắt

Drug promoting brochures can influence physicians prescription patterns. The validity of the info presented in these brochures is of major importance. World Health Organization (WHO) issued criteria to guarantee validity, equity and ethical presentation of data in medical brochures. This study aims to evaluate the quality and the validity of information presented in the pharmaceutical brochures distributed among family physicians in Lebanon. Pharmaceutical brochures were randomly collected at the family medicine center in Hôtel Dieu de France hospital in Beirut - Lebanon. These brochures were evaluated in reference to the WHO ethical criteria for medicinal drug promotion and on guidelines for quality assurance of the graphs, references, texts and illustrations. Among the 60 brochures collected, only 4 fulfilled all the WHO ethical criteria, and 24 presented less than half the required criteria. Information concerning the drug safety are the least mentioned. Only 11.8% of the presented graphs are based on studies of high methodological level. Half of the brochures presented necessary information to identify studies references which are not always retrievable. Texts present mainly brand names instead of generic names and emphasize on information reflecting the drug efficacy. The pharmaceutical brochures in this study presented incomplete or invalid information. Prescribing physicians should be aware of the claims found in the brochures distributed by pharmaceutical companies and should be familiar with the principles of the evidence-based medicine to be able to critically appraise the validity of the reference studies and avoid the pitfalls in graphs reading.

Tài liệu tham khảo

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