title: Quality of claims and references found in Australian pharmacy journal advertisements.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the quality of pharmaceutical advertisement claims and supporting references in Australian pharmacy journals that target community pharmacists.
  
  
  METHODS
  All full-page advertisements for a medicinal product, found in two Australian pharmacy journals from the year 2012 to 2015 were included. Advertisement claims and references were evaluated by claim type (unambiguous to immeasurable) and level of evidence (strong to irrelevant) in supporting references.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two hundred and ninety distinct advertisements and 598 claims were identified, with a median of 2 claims per advertisement. Twenty-seven percent of claims were unambiguous, 40% were vague, 16% were emotive/immeasurable and 17% were non-clinical or other marketing claims. Half of all claims were referenced. Although 68% of unambiguous claims were referenced, 63% of those were supported by studies that were funded directly or indirectly by pharmaceutical companies. Only 13% of claims were supported with strong or moderate independent evidence.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pharmaceutical advertisements continue to present vague and emotive claims with little independent supporting evidence. Pharmacists need to be aware of these limitations when providing patient care. Increased awareness of this issue among pharmaceutical companies, Australian pharmaceutical journal publishers, regulators and pharmacists will assist in promoting optimised healthcare outcomes for the Australian public.
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy School of Medicine, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia.
authors.forename: Mona
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mandoh
authors.affiliation: Pharmacy School of Medicine, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia.
authors.forename: Colin Michael
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Curtain
mesh_terms: D000329:Advertising / Q000592:standards*; D001315:Australia; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D010506:Periodicals as Topic
keywords: advertisement claims; advertisement quality; pharmaceutical advertising; pharmacy journals