title: Premedical students' exposure to the pharmaceutical industry's marketing practices.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Physicians' exposure to pharmaceutical industry marketing raises concerns about their ability to make unbiased, evidence-based prescription decisions. This exposure begins early in medical education. The authors examined the frequency and context of such exposures for students before matriculation to medical school.
  
  
  METHODS
  The authors distributed two separate but related questionnaires to all 389 students who matriculated at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine between 2007 and 2010. The survey inquired about interactions with the pharmaceutical industry before entering medical school. Descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon rank sum tests were used to analyze data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Across four years, 282 (72.5%) students responded to the first survey; 219 (56.3%) responded to the follow-up survey. The majority of those (62.1%) had interacted with or were exposed to pharmaceutical marketing before medical school. The most common interactions were accepting a pen (50.2%) and attending a sponsored lunch (37.9%), which occurred most commonly while shadowing (33.6% and 42.2%, respectively). The next most common interactions were receiving a small gift (24.7%) and attending a sponsored dinner (20.6%), which occurred most commonly in "other" contexts, such as through family and while working in a medical setting (48.2% and 48.9%, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The majority of students had interacted with the pharmaceutical industry before medical school. The differences in context indicate that students enter medical school with a heterogeneous set of exposures to pharmaceutical marketing. Medical schools should consider interventions to enhance students' knowledge of the impact of pharmaceutical marketing on physicians' prescribing practices.
authors.affiliation: Brown University Alpert Medical School, Providence, Rhode Island, USA. lehodges@gmail.com
authors.forename: Laura E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Hodges
authors.forename: Vineet M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Arora
authors.forename: Holly J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Humphrey
authors.forename: Shalini T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Reddy
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D002641:Chicago; D016265:Conflict of Interest; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D040541:Marketing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013340:Students, Premedical / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires