Statistical malpractice in drug promotion: A case-study from Brazil

Cesar G. Victoria

Social Science & Medicine, 1982, vol. 16, issue 6, 707-709

Abstract: The advertising practices employed by some drug corporations in peripheral countries have been criticised on medical and ethical grounds, mainly for failing to disclose the dangers and for exaggerating the properties of the promoted products. This paper reveals how statistical and methodological fallacies have also been employed in advertisements directed at Brazilian physicians in recent years. A large fraction of such promotional materials not only fail to support with evidence the claims being made but also employ faulty experimental design, analysis and presentation of results in order to impress upon doctors the quality of the drugs being advertised. Such practices, since they are likely to influence doctors to prescribe inadequate products, may represent a hazard to their patients' recovery.

Date: 1982
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277-9536(82)90460-9
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:16:y:1982:i:6:p:707-709

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().