National survey on the attitudes of Canadian physicians towards drug-detailing by pharmaceutical representatives.
OBJECTIVE
Our objective was to study the attitudes of Canadian physicians toward product presentations by pharmaceutical representatives (PRs), the use of inducements by the pharmaceutical industry, and methods to improve the quality of prescribing information provided to physicians.


METHODS
We used a mailed survey.


METHODS
A random sample of 550 Canadian physicians in all settings was chosen.


METHODS
The main outcome measure was the proportion of respondents agreeing with a series of statements.


RESULTS
The response rate was 262 of 525 deliverable surveys (50 per cent). Respondents had a mean of 4.2 interactions per week with PRs. Of the 262 respondents (5.8 per cent of data were incomplete), 193 (80 per cent) believed that PRs overemphasize their products' effectiveness, 108 (45 per cent) thought PRs do not present fairly the drugs' negative aspects, and 223 (92 per cent) felt that PRs have production promotion as a goal. Most, 175 (70 per cent), believe that drug-detailing affects physicians' prescribing behavior. Most, 210 (86 per cent), considered drug samples acceptable, but fewer agreed that other inducements were acceptable. Of the respondents, 183 (74 per cent) agreed that PRs should be required to use guidelines for standardized, comprehensive drug-detailing, and 165 (65 per cent) agreed that face-to-face drug-detailing by PRs using standardized guidelines would be an effective way to receive information.


CONCLUSIONS
There is dissatisfaction among Canadian physicians about the quality of information provided by the pharmaceutical industry. Standardized, comprehensive guidelines would be accepted by physicians as one improvement.
Strang
D
D
Dept. of Internal Medicine, University of Manitoba, 409 Tache Ave., Winnipeg MB R2H 2A6, Canada.
Gagnon
M
M
Molloy
W
W
Bedard
M
M
Darzins
P
P
Etchells
E
E
Davidson
W
W
D000329:Advertising; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002170:Canada; D003625:Data Collection; D004345:Drug Industry; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D005378:Financial Support; D037921:Gift Giving; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'
D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations