Background

Prior U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) surveys with healthcare providers (HCPs) have focused on attitudes toward direct-to-consumer advertising and have not specifically examined professionally-targeted prescription drug promotion. Similarly, there are no recent national surveys of HCPs examining their interactions with the pharmaceutical industry.

Objectives

The goal of this study was to use a national sample of HCPs to examine exposure to professionally-targeted prescription drug promotions and interactions with industry, and knowledge, attitudes and practices related to FDA approval of prescription drugs.

Methods

An online national survey was conducted with 2000 HCPs representing primary care physicians (PCPs), specialists (SPs), physician assistants (PAs), and nurse practitioners (NPs). The sample was randomly drawn from WebMD's Medscape subscriber network, stratified by HCP group, and designed to yield target numbers of completed surveys in each group. Weights were computed to correct for unequal selection probabilities, differential response rates, and differential coverage and used to generalize completed surveys to a national population of PCPs, SPs, NPs, and PAs.

Results

Exposure and attention to pharmaceutical promotions and contact with industry were significantly associated with reported increase in pharmaceutical industry influence on decisions about prescription drugs. SPs were significantly more likely to prescribe off-label and serve as opinion leaders for the pharmaceutical industry compared to other provider groups.

Conclusions

Findings indicate pharmaceutical promotions directed at HCPs occur in many forms and are disseminated through multiple channels. By using a nationally representative sample of HCPs, this study provides population-level estimates for exposure and attention to prescription drug promotion and contact with industry and evidence for their influence on prescriber decisions. Findings from this study will help to inform FDA of HCP responses to and impacts of prescription drug promotion.

中文翻译：

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什么影响医疗保健提供者的处方决定？全国调查结果

背景

之前美国食品和药物管理局 (FDA) 对医疗保健提供者 (HCP) 的调查侧重于对直接面向消费者的广告的态度，并没有专门研究以专业为目标的处方药促销。同样，最近没有对 HCP 进行全国性调查来检查他们与制药行业的互动。

目标

本研究的目的是使用全国 HCP 样本来检查专业针对性的处方药促销和与行业的互动，以及与 FDA 批准处方药相关的知识、态度和做法。

方法

对代表初级保健医生 (PCP)、专科医生 (SP)、医师助理 (PA) 和执业护士 (NP) 的 2000 名 HCP 进行了一项在线全国调查。该样本是从 WebMD 的 Medscape 订阅者网络中随机抽取的，按 HCP 组分层，旨在产生每个组中完成调查的目标数量。计算权重以校正不平等的选择概率、不同的响应率和不同的覆盖范围，并用于将已完成的调查推广到 PCP、SP、NP 和 PA 的全国人群。

结果

对药品促销活动的曝光和关注以及与行业的接触与所报告的制药行业对处方药决策的影响力的增加显着相关。与其他提供者群体相比，SP 更有可能开出标签外的处方，并成为制药行业的意见领袖。

结论

调查结果表明，针对 HCP 的药物促销以多种形式出现，并通过多种渠道传播。通过使用具有全国代表性的 HCP 样本，本研究提供了对处方药促销和行业接触的暴露和关注的人口水平估计，以及它们对开处方者决定的影响的证据。这项研究的结果将有助于让 FDA 了解 HCP 对处方药促销的反应和影响。