Assessment of Perception, Knowledge and Practice of Healthcare Professionals Regarding Pharmaceutical Advertisement (PA) in Pakistan
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Pharmaceutical Advertisement, Pharmaceutical Marketing, Pharmaceutical advertising in Pakistan
Abstract
Pharmaceutical advertising (PA) effects both healthcare professionals and consumers. Ethical and legal challenges of PA are often odious and unmet to the standards. This study was designed to assess perceptions, knowledge, and practices of healthcare professionals towards pharmaceutical advertisement in Pakistan. A survey-based descriptive cross-section study, of 764 sample records and analyzed by SPSS, version 21. A Chi-square test was performed (p ≤ 0.05) to find out differences among variables. We found 34.8% (n=266) physicians, 8.4% (n=64) dentists, 13.6% (n=104) hospital pharmacists, 15.7% (n=120) community pharmacists, 8.4% (n=64) regulatory pharmacists, 8.3% (n=63) marketing pharmacists and 10.9% (n=83) physicians and pharmacists from distributions and other relevant fields participated in this study. The result showed that 81.4 % (n=622) believed that medical advertisements should seek government approval, 71.3% (n=545) assumed that only registered drugs could be advertised. 34.0% (n=260) answered only prescription drug could be advertised. 7.2% (n=284) showed a negative response towards advertised drugs. 33.0% (n=252) answered that advertising encourages the patients to decide on their choice of a drug without the help of a healthcare professional, while 31.4%(n=240) of the respondents were agreed that advertising provided reliable information regarding a medicine. 36.4% (n=278) of respondents were agree that advertisements increased drugs cost. 32.7% (n=250 and 37.4% (n=286) answered that patients buy an advertised drug without referring a doctor. This study concluded that the awareness regarding PA was low among the healthcare professionals in Pakistan. Healthcare personals were in the favor of advertisement, regardless of little knowledge about the current advertisement rules in the country. Comparatively, Pharmacists have better knowledge of PA than physicians do.
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