Pharmaceutical advertisements analysis in health journals: A comparative study in two selected health journals in Turkey

The advertisements of pharmaceutical products are considered to have different contents in the health journals that reach to healthcare professionals and health journals that reach public. Detailed pharmacological information about the products are presented to healthcare professionals. The aim of this study is, to identify similarities and differences of advertisements of the related product categories in the selected health journals and parallel to this; to reveal if the contents of advertisements show correspondence to regulations. To meet the research criteria, two health journals are chosen. Each of them publishes every month, some issues once in 2 months throughout 2012, worldwide and has also Turkey editions. Advertisements of pharmaceutical products are analysed retrospectively and comparatively by the coding system designed by the researcher. The content differences of pharmaceutical advertisements that presented on both journals and their content differences compared with the assistance of SPSS 21.0 statistics programme. Pharmaceutical advertisements are a communication channel between pharmaceutical companies and consumers or healthcare professionals. Brief medical information about pharmaceutical products are mostly presented to healthcare professionals. Both journals are parallel with the pharmaceutical promotion regulations in Turkey. But still there are some inconsistencies with the regulations. This situation may be related to the uncertain regulation criteria for the pharmaceutical advertisement content. Pharmaceutical advertisements should be taken seriously. Because, if readers pay no attention on pharmaceutical advertisements, they may be influenced the way the advertiser intends. Considering pharmaceutical advertisements as a factor on public health, promotion regulations should define certain criteria about pharmaceutical advertising.