title: Pre-Clinical Medical Students' Exposure to and Attitudes Toward Pharmaceutical Industry Marketing.
abstract: Background - Recent studies have examined the exposures and attitudes of physicians and third- and fourth-year medical students toward pharmaceutical industry marketing, but fewer studies have addressed these topics among pre-clinical medical students. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess pre-clinical students' level of exposure to the pharmaceutical industry and their attitudes toward marketing. Method - First and second-year medical students at UCLA completed a 40-item survey based on previous studies. Results - Over three quarters of pre-clinical students (78.5% or 226 of 288) responded to the survey. Exposure to pharmaceutical industry marketing started very early in medical school. Most second-year students (77%) had received gifts including drug samples after three semesters. Most felt that this would not affect their future prescribing behavior. Conclusions - These findings and findings from related studies, coupled with the students' desire to learn more about the issue, suggest that an early educational intervention addressing this topic may be warranted in American medical schools.
authors.affiliation: a Rising MS 3 Office of Student Affairs.
authors.forename: Eric H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Fein
authors.affiliation: b Staff Research Associate Center for Education Development and Research.
authors.forename: Michelle L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Vermillion
authors.affiliation: c Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine Director of Research Center for Education Development and Research David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
authors.forename: Sebastian H J
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Uijtdehaage