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Attitudes of British Columbia doctors toward the manufacture and marketing of drugs

University of British Columbia

The purpose of this study was to find differences, in degree of "skepticism" about the manufacturing and marketing of drugs, among groups of medical doctors categorized according to training and experience, "Skepticism" was measured by a questionnaire prepared by the Department of Pharmacology with the collaboration of the Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia. The questionnaire was composed of eighteen statements representing issues about the manufacturing and marketing of drugs; "skepticism" was measured by degree of agreement or disagreement with each statement, expressed on a four-point response scale accompanying each statement. Eleven different ways of classifying doctors according to training and experience were employed, and each of these eleven involved a plurality of groups. Altogether 906 groups were considered. The "Skepticism" questionnaire together with a "Personal Data" section to supply data for classifying according to training and experience were sent to the 2413 B.C. doctors registered by the B.C. College of Physicians and Surgeons. Of the 2413 sent, 1193 were returned. Chi-square comparisons were made in order to determine which groups of doctors were relatively "skeptical" or "naive" according to each of the eighteen questionnaire statements. The great majority of comparisons failed to show differences significant at the .05 level. Comparisons which were significant showed instances where groups of respondents were relatively "skeptical" or "naive"; these were the findings it was the purpose of this study to obtain. These findings were discussed with reference to the particular groups of doctors, and questionnaire statements involved.

Text

2011-10-28

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/38394

Psychology

University of British Columbia

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