Interactions Between Pharmaceutical Companies and Medical Students In Greece

Abstract

International studies suggest that, besides medical doctors, medical students are exposed to pharmaceutical company marketing and their interactions with industry representatives are augmenting throughout the years of medical school. The aim of our study was to assess, for the first-time in Greece, the interactions between pharmaceutical companies and medical students. A sample of undergraduate medical students completed an anonymous, self-administered, web-based survey. The questions investigated the interaction between the students and the companies asking about gifts and other benefits received. The answers offered were binomial variables “yes” or “no”. The final sample consisted of 412 students (52.7% women, 47.3% men, mean age 22 years) and the overall response rate was 58.9%. Most of the responders (52.2%) were clinical level students. The commonest types of accepted benefits, especially among clinical level students, were low cost non-educational gifts, books, lunch, as well as attending seminars or educational events provided by pharmaceutical companies. 67.4% of the clinical level students had received a low cost non-educational gift from a company, 59.1% had attended a seminar or educational event provided by a company, 33% had received a lunch, 20% a book and 17.2% had attended a conference with the registration fee paid by a company. Most of the students strongly believed that the lectures sponsored by companies are not educational and are biased in favor of the company’s product. However, 47.6% of them stated that companies’ promotional material is useful to learn about new medications. Our study suggests that medical students in Greece are remarkably exposed to the pharmaceutical industry marketing. Interventions are needed to prepare students to be able to manage and evaluate these interactions in a critical way.