Health professional’s exposure, attitude, and acceptance of drug promotion by industry representatives: A cross-sectional study in Ethiopia

Interactions between pharmaceutical companies and health care providers have long been an area of interest from ethical as well as scientific grounds. The information provided by those companies must be scientifically accurate and fair. The current study aimed to investigate the exposure, attitude, and training background of medical doctors and pharmacy professionals regarding drug promotional activities, and assess their acceptance of promotional gifts provided by pharmaceutical sales representatives. A cross-sectional study was conducted on medical doctors and pharmacy professionals working at Bahir Dar and Gondar cities, Amhara regional state, Ethiopia. Data were collected using a self-administered structured questionnaire and Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 26 was used for analysis. A Chi-square test was computed to investigate the presence of an association between the dependent and independent variables. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered to declare significance at a 95% Confidence Interval (CI). A total of 105 health professionals, 81 pharmacy professionals, and 24 medical doctors have participated in the study. Above two-thirds of the respondents (69.5%) agreed that most talks sponsored by drug companies were helpful and educational. On the other hand, 39% of the respondents agreed and 47.6% disagreed that receiving gifts from pharmaceutical representatives will increase the chance that they will eventually sell or recommend the drug company’s products. The majority of the study participants (81%) preferred drug samples and stationery as appropriate gifts by pharmaceutical sales representatives. Significant gaps were found regarding the training of health professionals about the ethics of drug marketing and how to deal with pharmaceutical representatives. Policies aiming at restricting health care provider’s contacts with pharmaceutical companies during residency training along with incorporating gift restriction policies could bring significant improvements.