A review of pharmaceutical advertising in U.S. medical journals finds 29 percent of ads did not contain a reference for medical claims.
The study, released Monday by University of California Los Angeles investigators, sought to find what materials are cited in support of medical claims and if those references are available to physicians. The researchers also wanted to find research funding sources.
The study, which included 438 ads from 10 journals and 400 references in journal articles, is published in this week's Canadian Medical Association Journal.
The team found that while 84 percent of references to published material were available, only 20 percent of company data-on-file documents were provided on request.
In comparison, 99 percent of the reference documents cited in the 400 journal articles was available.
Of 294 ad references citing original research, 58 percent included research sponsored by a pharmaceutical company or involved affiliated authors, 19 percent was funded by government or charitable sources and 23 percent had no funding statement at all.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
