Abstract
BackgroundEuropean legislation prohibits direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines, but allows drug manufacturers to provide information to the public on health and diseases. Our aim was to measure the frequency of disease awareness campaigns in Latvian media and assess their compliance with international and European standards.MethodsMaterials on health/disease and treatments were collected between April and September 2015 from 12 newspapers and magazines and six online portals. Disease awareness campaigns were assessed using a previously developed instrument based on the WHO Ethical Criteria for Medicinal Drug promotion and European standards (EU law and pharmaceutical industry self-regulatory guidelines). Collected materials were used to examine the information provided on medical conditions and their diagnosis and treatment. The inter-rater reliability was calculated.ResultsWe collected 263 materials from print (n = 149) and online media (n = 114); 94 were news items and 169 were disease-awareness advertisements. Cancer, cardiovascular problems, allergies and respiratory diseases were common topics. Of the 157 campaigns assessed, non-compliance was identified in 149 cases (inter-rater reliability 90%), mainly due to misleading or incomplete information, lack of balance and the absence of a listed author/sponsor. Six disease awareness campaigns directly mentioned a pharmaceutical product by brand name and other four included the logo or name of a manufacturer, referred to a condition and indirectly mentioned a treatment, all in contravention with European law.ConclusionsThe compliance of disease awareness campaigns in Latvian media with international and European standards is low. This raises concerns about the nature of information being conveyed. Through lack of balance, missing sponsorship information, and misleading or incomplete information, these campaigns could contribute to inaccurate self-diagnosis and generate demand among those who might not need medical treatment.
Highlights
European legislation prohibits direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines, but allows drug manufacturers to provide information to the public on health and diseases
Assessing disease-awareness frequency in media A total of 263 materials were collected, 94 (35.7%) of which were news items (Group I) and 169 (64.2%) were disease awareness campaigns to be scored by the instrument (Group II)
This means that on average, ten materials covering disease and treatment topics were published in print or online media every week, 6 of which were disease awareness campaigns
Summary
European legislation prohibits direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines, but allows drug manufacturers to provide information to the public on health and diseases. In countries where direct to consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription medicines is banned, companies are testing the limits of regulatory systems with disease oriented advertising, public relations campaigns and unbranded advertising to the public [1,2,3]. The approach behind such activities is that mass media expands the patients’ disease and/or drug awareness and motivates them to visit physicians for previously untreated conditions [4]. If the information provided is portrayed as a community service, the public might remain unaware of its commercial intent [5]
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