Attitudes of medical students towards incentives offered by pharmaceutical companies- perspective from a developing nation- a cross sectional study
Attitudes of medical students towards incentives offered by pharmaceutical companies- perspective from a developing nation- a cross sectional study
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DOI：
10.1186/1472-6939-15-36
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发表时间：
2014-05-05
影响因子：
2.7
通讯作者：
Farid-Ul-Husnain, Syed
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Siddiqui, Usman Tariq;Shakoor, Amarah;Farid-Ul-Husnain, Syed
背景：一名实习医师在医学院期间第一次与药厂代表接触。医学院的学生通常会得到笔、日历和书等小礼物，以及作为药物促销活动的一部分的免费午餐。巴基斯坦以前从未调查过年轻医学生所认为的这些交易的伦理影响。本研究旨在评估社会人口学变量与医学生对制药公司及其激励措施的态度的关系。方法：作为横断面调查的一部分，先前用于评估医学生对制药业态度的有效问卷被修改，预测试并分发给DUHS和AKU的临床年级学生。问题包括制药公司赞助的礼物、活动和学费的可接受性，以及它们对未来处方的影响。回答被分为同意、不同意或中立，然后根据AMSA的道德行为准则进行评分。结果：在353名目标学生中，有303名学生回复，对应的回复率为85.8%。回复显示，42.7%的学生认为在医学院期间没有与制药公司的互动。然而，81%的学生赞成制药公司赞助医学院的学生团体活动/研讨会。超过三分之一的学生接受了制药公司的礼物。总的来说，这项研究的结果提供了一个有趣的比较私立医学院（AKU）和公立医学院（DUHS）的学生；与DUHS学生相比，AKU学生对制药公司提供的药物信息表现出更大程度的不信任（p = 0.040）。此外，当被问及是否需要在本科课程中纳入与制药公司互动的指导方针时，AKU的84.2%学生表示同意，而DUHS的这一比例为54.9%。医学生态度得分或多或少彼此相似，独立于他们的各种人口统计学差异。结论：本研究强调我国医科学生对制药行业提供的激励措施有很高的接受程度，有关该主题的正式指导应纳入医学课程。
Background: A training physician has his first interaction with a pharmaceutical representative during medical school. Medical students are often provided with small gifts such as pens, calendars and books, as well as free lunches as part of drug promotion offers. Ethical impact of these transactions as perceived by young medical students has not been investigated in Pakistan before. This study aimed to assess the association of socio-demographic variables with the attitudes of medical students towards pharmaceutical companies and their incentives.Methods: As part of a cross-sectional survey, a validated questionnaire previously used for assessing attitude of medical students towards pharmaceutical industry, was modified, pre-tested and distributed among consenting clinical year students at DUHS and AKU. Questions included acceptability of pharmaceutically sponsored gifts, events and tuition fee, and their impact on future prescription. Responses were graded as agree, disagree or neutral which were then scored according to the AMSA guidelines of ethical conduct.Results: Out of a total of 353 targeted students 303 responded, corresponding to a response rate of 85.8%. Responses indicated that 42.7% students believed in no interaction with drug companies during medical school. However, 81% of students favored pharmaceutical sponsorship of student-body events/seminars at medical colleges. More than one-third of the students were comfortable receiving gifts from drug companies. Overall, the results of this study offer an interesting comparison between the students of a private medical school (AKU) and a public medical school (DUHS); AKU students exhibited a greater degree of mistrust towards drug information provided by pharmaceutical companies compared to DUHS students (p = 0.040). Furthermore, when asked if there was a need to incorporate guidelines in the undergraduate curriculum with regard to interaction with drug companies, 84.2% students at AKU agreed, compared to 54.9% at DUHS. Medical student Attitude Scores are more or less similar to each other independent of their various demographical differences.Conclusion: This study highlights that medical students in our population have a high level of acceptability towards incentives offered by pharmaceutical industry and that formal guidance regarding the subject should be incorporated into medical curriculum.