Pilot Study Suggests that Pharmaceutical Ads Influence Publication of Dietary Supplement Articles in Medical Journals

摘要

The US Food and Drug Administration defines dietary supplements (DS) as "vitamins, minerals, herbs or other botanicals, amino acids, and substances such as enzymes, organ tissues, glan-dulars, and metabolites." Because of Americans' increasing interest in supplements, the National Institutes of Health has funded research to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of DS, resulting in an increasing number of published research papers. Articles in general medical journals are often cited in professional practice guidelines for clinicians and by the media for dissemination of information to the public. Many medical journals are supported by advertising revenue. Seeking to evaluate the relationship between pharmaceutical advertising and publication about natural health products (which may be viewed as competing with pharmaceutical products), the authors conducted a pilot study to explore this relationship and to compare this to publication about DS in three journals devoted to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM).