title: The quantity and quality of scientific graphs in pharmaceutical advertisements.
abstract: We characterized the quantity and quality of graphs in all pharmaceutical advertisements, in the 10 U.S. medical journals. Four hundred eighty-four unique advertisements (of 3,185 total advertisements) contained 836 glossy and 455 small-print pages. Forty-nine percent of glossy page area was nonscientific figures/images, 0.4% tables, and 1.6% scientific graphs (74 graphs in 64 advertisements). All 74 graphs were univariate displays, 4% were distributions, and 4% contained confidence intervals for summary measures. Extraneous decoration (66%) and redundancy (46%) were common. Fifty-eight percent of graphs presented an outcome relevant to the drug's indication. Numeric distortion, specifically prohibited by FDA regulations, occurred in 36% of graphs.
authors.affiliation: Received from UCLA Emergency Medicine Center, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, Calif. 90024, USA. richelle@ucla.edu
authors.forename: Richelle J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Schriger
authors.forename: Roger C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Wallace
authors.forename: Vladislav J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Mikulich
authors.forename: Michael S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Wilkes
mesh_terms: D000329:Advertising / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015706:Bibliometrics; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000592:standards*; D035082:Federal Government; D033161:Government Regulation; D006801:Humans; D008488:Medical Illustration; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000592:standards; D028743:Professional Misconduct; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations