Original scientific paper
Is Content of Medical Journals Related to Advertisements? Case-control Study
Vasiliy V. Vlassov
orcid.org/0000-0001-5203-549X
; Moscow Medical Academy, Moscow, Russia
Abstract
Aim To assess the relatedness of journal content to paid advertisements published
in the journal.
Methods The case-control study was performed on a convenience sample of 7
journals subscribed by Central Medical Library in Moscow – 4 international
(American Journal of Hypertension, British Journal of General Practice, The Lancet,
and New England Journal of Medicine) and 3 Russian peer reviewed journals
(Terapevticheskii Arkhiv, Khirurgiia, and Voeno-Meditsinskii Zhurnal). In each
issue containing a paid advertisement, classifieds excluded, we searched for articles
related to the advertised product and compared this issue with a control
issue – the next or a later issue without this advertisement.
Results In American Journal of Hypertension (33 issues from 2002-2004) 94
placements of advertisements were found, 7 of which were closely related to the
article topic in the same issue (7/94) vs 2/66 in the control issue. The odds ratio
(OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for advertisements to be accompanied
by related articles was OR, 2.6; 95%CI, 0.5-13). In British Journal of General
Practice (27 issues from 2003-2005) there were 7/63 advertisements related to
the article topic vs 0/28 in the control issue (OR, 7.2; 95% CI, 1.3 to 44). In
The Lancet (49 issues from 2004) there were 8/162 advertisements related to
the article topic vs 8/104 in the control issue (OR, 0.6; 95% CI, 0.3-1.5). In
New England Journal of Medicine (37 issues from 2004) there were 12/81 advertisements
related to the article topic vs 8/75 in the control issue (OR, 1.5;
95% CI, 0.56-3.79). In Terapevticheskii Arkhiv (10 issues from 2004) there were
38/93 advertisements related to the article topic vs 1/83 in the control issue
(OR, 56.66; 95% CI, 4.4-253). In Khirurgiia (25 issues from 2003-2005) there
were 3/83 advertisements related to the article topic vs 0/70 in the control issue
(OR, 2.7; 95% CI, 0.3-26). In Voeno-Meditsinskii Zhurnal (33 issues from 2003-
2005) there were 17/31 advertisements related to the article topic vs 2/31 in the
control issue (OR,17.6; 95% CI, 3.6-87).
Conclusions The strong relatedness between the content of the articles and advertisements
placed in 3 of 7 journals and explicit placement of the advertisements
face to face or overleaf the related research articles support the hypothesis that
journal content is manipulated to place more emphasis on the advertisements.
Keywords
Medical Journals; Advertisement
Hrčak ID:
21006
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2007.
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