Table 3 describes the amount of time spent in education on drug promotion. Nearly one-third of medical faculty respondents reported only 1 to 2 hours spent on drug promotion within the required curriculum. When promotion was covered within electives, usually a minority of students took the elective. The proportion did not differ between medical and pharmacy faculties.
Table 3: How many hours are spent educating students about drug promotion?
Within the required curriculum |
Pharmacy
n=91 |
Medical
n=137 |
Combined
n=228 |
1 to 2 hours |
16 (18%) |
43 (31%) |
59 (26%) |
3 to 7 hours |
31 (34%) |
48 (35%) |
79 (35%) |
8 or more hours |
18 (20%) |
11 (8%) |
29 (13%) |
Promotion not included in required curriculum |
26 (29%) |
35 (26%) |
61 (27%) |
Within elective courses |
Pharmacy
n=29 |
Medical
n=32 |
Combined
n=61 |
1 to 2 hours |
7 (24%) |
13 (41%) |
20 (33%) |
3 to 7 hours |
14 (48%) |
11 (34%) |
25 (41%) |
8 or more hours |
8 (28%) |
8 (25%) |
16 (26%) |
Elective is the only form of instruction mentioned |
6 (21%) |
6 (19%) |
12 (20%) |
How many students take this elective? |
Less than 10% |
10 (34%) |
11 (34%) |
21 (34%) |
10-25% |
10 (34%) |
8 (25%) |
18 (30%) |
26-50% |
5 (17%) |
5 (16%) |
10 (16%) |
More than 50% |
3 (10%) |
8 (25%) |
11 (18%) |
In specialty/ residency training |
Pharmacy
(n=21) |
Medical
(n=38) |
Combined
(n=59) |
1 to 2 hours |
3 (14%) |
16 (42%) |
19 (32%) |
3 to 7 hours |
10 (48%) |
16 (42%) |
26 (44%) |
8 or more hours |
8 (38%) |
6 (16%) |
14 (24%) |
Specialty/residency training is the only form of instruction mentioned |
2 (10%) |
4 (10%) |
6 (10%) |
In other ways |
Pharmacy
(n=44) |
Medical
(n=63) |
Combined
(n=107) |
1 to 2 hours |
13 (29%) |
29 (46%) |
42 (39%) |
3 to 7 hours |
16 (36%) |
19 (30%) |
35 (33%) |
8 or more hours |
11 (25%) |
8 (13%) |
19 (18%) |
‘Other’ is the only form of instruction mentioned |
8 (18%) |
15 (23%) |
23 (21%) |
Total reported time spent in education about drug promotion, from all types of courses combined, varied from 1 to 2 hours to over 40 hours. To facilitate analysis, total educational time was categorized into terciles. The lower third consisted of people reporting one half day or less of education about promotion in total; the middle third 4 to 9 hours; and the upper third of those reporting more than 10 hours of education. As shown in Table 3a below, nearly twice as many medical as pharmacy respondents reported educational time in total of one half day or less. There was little difference by region in the breakdown of time allocation.
Table 3a: Total time in education about drug promotion- all types of courses
Educational time by health profession |
Pharmacy
n=91 |
Medical
n=137* |
Combined
n=228 |
One half day or less |
18 (20%) |
51 (37%) |
69 (30%) |
> 4 and < 9 hours |
23 (25%) |
43 (31%) |
66 (29%) |
10 or more hours |
50 (55%)** |
39 (28%) |
89 (39%) |
* 3 responses missing on this question
**pharmacy vs. medical responses differed significantly, p<.05, chi square analysis
Table 3b: Total educational time - by region
Educational time by region |
Europe
n=92* |
Americas
n=56* |
W Pacific
n=31* |
Africa
n=20 |
SE Asia
n=20 |
E Mediterr
n=9 |
One half day or less |
28 (30%) |
18 (32%) |
12 (39%) |
5 (25%) |
4 (20%) |
3 (33%) |
> 4 and < 9 hours |
26 (28%) |
18 (32%) |
8 (26%) |
5 (25%) |
7 (35%) |
2 (22%) |
10 or more hours |
37 (40%) |
19 (34%) |
10 (32%) |
10 (50%) |
9 (45%) |
4 (44%) |
* One missing response per region
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