title: [Written pharmaceutical advertising--still unreliable?].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Marketing by the pharmaceutical industry affects doctors' prescribing habits.
  
  
  METHODS
  All pharmaceutical advertising received by nine doctors in two GP offices over a period of three months was collected. The advertising material was sorted by compound. For each compound, the advert with the highest number of references was selected. The cited references were obtained, and the claims in the adverts were assessed in terms of their consistency with the source data based on the provisions in the Norwegian regulations on pharmaceuticals. The references were also assessed with regard to the incidence of conflicts of interest among authors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The doctors received a total of 270 shipments of advertising for 46 different compounds. Altogether 95% of the 173 references cited in the 46 selected adverts could be obtained. The adverts contained a total of 156 claims. Of these, 56% were assessed as correct when compared to the source data and as having clinical relevance. Altogether 75% of the journal articles reported relevant conflicts of interest for the authors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  About half the claims in the adverts were found to be correct and clinically relevant. These results concur with those from a methodologically identical study based on advertising material collected in 2004. The cited literature was of varying quality and often funded by the pharmaceutical companies. The findings indicate that the target group should be sceptical of this type of marketing.
authors.affiliation: Institutt for laboratoriemedisin, barne- og kvinnesykdommer Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet og Avdeling for klinisk farmakologi St. Olavs hospital.
authors.forename: Kristin Haugen
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Gladsø
authors.affiliation: Institutt for laboratoriemedisin, barne- og kvinnesykdommer Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet og Avdeling for klinisk farmakologi St. Olavs hospital.
authors.forename: Hedda Rosland
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Garberg
authors.affiliation: Institutt for laboratoriemedisin, barne- og kvinnesykdommer Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet og Avdeling for klinisk farmakologi St. Olavs hospital.
authors.forename: Olav
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Spigset
authors.affiliation: Institutt for laboratoriemedisin, barne- og kvinnesykdommer Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet og Avdeling for klinisk farmakologi St. Olavs hospital.
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Slørdal
mesh_terms: D000329:Advertising / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016265:Conflict of Interest; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D058006:General Practice; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'