Table 1.
Topics in questionnaire on attitudes to drug information and responses (mean and median) from 368 GPs
| Item* | N (%)** | Mean (SD)*** | Median (IQR)**** | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Where do you mostly get information about drugs? (pharmaceutical industry --- public authorities) |
313 (85.1) | 3.7 (2.7) | 4.0 (3.0) | ||
| 2a | What is your opinion on the amount of drug information you get from public authorities? (too scarce --- too extensive) |
313 (85.1) | 3.1 (1.2) | 3.0 (2.0) | ||
| 2b | What is your opinion on the amount of information from the pharmaceutical industry? (too scarce --- too extensive) |
314 (85.3) | 5.6 (1.3) | 6.0 (2.0) | ||
| 3a | What is your opinion on the quality of drug information from public authorities? (very poor --- excellent) |
313 (85.1) | 5.2 (1.4) | 6.0 (1.0) | ||
| 3b | What is your opinion on the quality of drug information from the pharmaceutical industry? (very poor ---excellent) |
313 (85.1) | 3.7 (1.4) | 4.0 (2.0) | ||
| 4a | Do you usually find drug information from public authorities useful? (Not at all --- a great deal) |
314 (85.3) | 5.4 (1.3) | 6.0 (1.0) | ||
| 4b | Do you usually find drug information from the pharmaceutical industry useful? (Not at all --- a great deal) |
312 (84.8) | 3.8 (1.4) | 4.0 (2.0) | ||
| 5a | If you usually find drug information from public authorities useful - how soon does it prove to be useful? (Later on --- immediately) |
306 (83.2) | 4.5 (1.4) | 5.0 (2.0) | ||
| 5b | If you usually find drug information from the pharmaceutical industry useful -how soon does it prove to be useful? (later on --- immediately) |
303 (82.3) | 4.3 (1.3) | 4.0 (2.0) | ||
| 6a | If you usually find drug information from public authorities useful - please give some examples. | ----- | ----- | ----- | ||
| 6b | If you usually find drug information from the pharmaceutical industry useful- please give some examples. | ----- | ----- | ----- | ||
| To what extent do you agree with the following four statements? | ----- | ----- | ----- | |||
| (do not agree at all --- agree totally) | ||||||
| 7a | The main task of the drug information from public authorities is to increase my knowledge of drugs. | 314 (85, 3) | 5.7 (1.4) | 6.0 (2.0) | ||
| 7b | The main task of the drug information from the pharmaceutical industry is to increase my knowledge of drugs. | 313 (85, 1) | 3.5 (1.7) | 3.0 (3.0) | ||
| 7c | The main task of the drug information from public authorities is to influence the cost of medication for providers. | 313 (85, 1) | 5.0 (1.5) | 5.0 (2.0) | ||
| 7d | The main task of the drug information from the pharmaceutical industry is to influence the company's sales. | 313 (85, 1) | 6.2 (1.1) | 7.0 (1.0) | ||
*All questions except 6a and 6b were Likert scales anchored from 1 to 7 with 1 representing the alternative seen left in brackets below the item and 7 as the alternative seen right in brackets below the item. Society = Societal information about drugs from e.g. drug and therapeutic committees, The Medical Products Agency, The National Board of Health and Welfare, The Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care, The Swedish Drug Compendium, postal advertisement, information during lunch, educational events.
**The questions were at most answered by 368 GPs, frequency varying for different questions.
***Mean with standard deviation within parenthesis
****Median with inter quartile range within parenthesis