{"title":"Japanese physicians' perceptions of conflicts of interest with pharmaceutical companies: Estimating two different questioning approaches","authors":"Hiroaki Saito, Akihiko Ozaki, Michio Murakami, Yoshitake Takebayashi","doi":"10.1002/hpm.3748","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>Despite being one of the world's largest pharmaceutical markets, interactions between Japanese physicians and pharmaceutical companies often remain opaque. Importantly, potential conflicts of interest associated with these interactions can compromise patient care and increase costs. We conducted an online survey of Japanese physicians to elucidate perspectives on pharmaceutical company promotional activities and how these influence physician prescribing patterns. Anticipating that physicians might downplay their reliance on, or the value of, pharmaceutical company-provided information, the survey incorporated a direct questioning method and an unmatched count technique (UCT) to identify hidden perceptions on factors likely to influence prescribing. Overall, 1080 eligible physicians participated. Of these, 105 (9.7%) self-identified as hospital directors or managers. Surprisingly, nearly twice as many participants responding to direct questioning (18.9%) versus those responding to the UCT (10.1%) asserted that information provided by pharmaceutical companies was important when prescribing medicine. Hospital directors or managers (adjusted odds ratio [adjOR] 2.56, 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.00–6.54, reference = physician without title) and frequent interactions with pharmaceutical sales representatives (adjOR 5.96, 95% CI: 1.88–18.9, reference = rare interaction) significantly valued the information from sales representatives and sponsored lectures when considering prescribing decisions. Additionally, 77.1% of respondents believed that sales representatives provide fair, neutral, or relatively honest and unbiased information about their products. Few Japanese physicians acknowledged the influence of industry-provided information on prescribing patterns. Our study uniquely applies two distinct question formats, providing a novel approach to understanding the depth of physician-industry relationships and the effectiveness of various survey methodologies.</p>","PeriodicalId":47637,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Health Planning and Management","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal of Health Planning and Management","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hpm.3748","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"HEALTH POLICY & SERVICES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Despite being one of the world's largest pharmaceutical markets, interactions between Japanese physicians and pharmaceutical companies often remain opaque. Importantly, potential conflicts of interest associated with these interactions can compromise patient care and increase costs. We conducted an online survey of Japanese physicians to elucidate perspectives on pharmaceutical company promotional activities and how these influence physician prescribing patterns. Anticipating that physicians might downplay their reliance on, or the value of, pharmaceutical company-provided information, the survey incorporated a direct questioning method and an unmatched count technique (UCT) to identify hidden perceptions on factors likely to influence prescribing. Overall, 1080 eligible physicians participated. Of these, 105 (9.7%) self-identified as hospital directors or managers. Surprisingly, nearly twice as many participants responding to direct questioning (18.9%) versus those responding to the UCT (10.1%) asserted that information provided by pharmaceutical companies was important when prescribing medicine. Hospital directors or managers (adjusted odds ratio [adjOR] 2.56, 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.00–6.54, reference = physician without title) and frequent interactions with pharmaceutical sales representatives (adjOR 5.96, 95% CI: 1.88–18.9, reference = rare interaction) significantly valued the information from sales representatives and sponsored lectures when considering prescribing decisions. Additionally, 77.1% of respondents believed that sales representatives provide fair, neutral, or relatively honest and unbiased information about their products. Few Japanese physicians acknowledged the influence of industry-provided information on prescribing patterns. Our study uniquely applies two distinct question formats, providing a novel approach to understanding the depth of physician-industry relationships and the effectiveness of various survey methodologies.
期刊介绍:
Policy making and implementation, planning and management are widely recognized as central to effective health systems and services and to better health. Globalization, and the economic circumstances facing groups of countries worldwide, meanwhile present a great challenge for health planning and management. The aim of this quarterly journal is to offer a forum for publications which direct attention to major issues in health policy, planning and management. The intention is to maintain a balance between theory and practice, from a variety of disciplines, fields and perspectives. The Journal is explicitly international and multidisciplinary in scope and appeal: articles about policy, planning and management in countries at various stages of political, social, cultural and economic development are welcomed, as are those directed at the different levels (national, regional, local) of the health sector. Manuscripts are invited from a spectrum of different disciplines e.g., (the social sciences, management and medicine) as long as they advance our knowledge and understanding of the health sector. The Journal is therefore global, and eclectic.