The quantity and quality of scientific graphs in pharmaceutical advertisements

Richelle J. Cooper; David L. Schriger; Roger C. Wallace; Vladislav J. Mikulich; Michael S Wilkes

doi:10.1046/j.1525-1497.2003.20703.x

The quantity and quality of scientific graphs in pharmaceutical advertisements

Richelle J. Cooper, David L. Schriger, Roger C. Wallace, Vladislav J. Mikulich, Michael S Wilkes

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

40 Scopus citations

Abstract

We characterized the quantity and quality of graphs in all pharmaceutical advertisements in the 1999 issues of 10 U.S. medical journals. Four hundred eighty-four unique advertisements (of 3,185 total advertisements) contained 836 glossy and 455 small-print pages. Forty-nine percent of glossy page area was nonscientific figures/images, 0.4% tables, and 1.6% scientific graphs (74 graphs in 64 advertisements). All 74 graphs were univariate displays, 4% were distributions, and 4% contained confidence intervals for summary measures. Extraneous decoration (66%) and redundancy (46%) were common. Fifty-eight percent of graphs presented an outcome relevant to the drug's indication. Numeric distortion, specifically prohibited by FDA regulations, occurred in 36% of graphs.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	294-297
Number of pages	4
Journal	Journal of General Internal Medicine
Volume	18
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1525-1497.2003.20703.x
State	Published - Apr 1 2003
Externally published	Yes

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Keywords

Advertising standards
Drug industry
Graphing
Medical illustration

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Internal Medicine

Cite this

Cooper, R. J., Schriger, D. L., Wallace, R. C., Mikulich, V. J., & Wilkes, M. S. (2003). The quantity and quality of scientific graphs in pharmaceutical advertisements. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 18(4), 294-297. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1525-1497.2003.20703.x

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10.1046/j.1525-1497.2003.20703.x