The Quantity and Quality of Scientific Graphs in Pharmaceutical Advertisements

• Nágila Ricardo

  English

  Author

The quantity and quality of graphs in a11 pharmaceutical advertisements in the leee editions of the U.S. 
medical journals were described. There were 836 g1ossy and 455 sma11-print pages in 484 distinct adverts 
(of 3,85 total advertisements). Nonscientific figures and graphics made up 49% of the gossy page area, 
followed by tables (O.4%) and scientific graphs (74 graphs in 64 advertising) (L.6%). A11 74 graphics had 
univariate distributions, 4% had distributions, and 4% had summary measure confidence intervals. 
Redundancy (46%) and extra-neous ornamentation (66%) were prevalent. A result relevant to the medication's 
indication was shown in 58% of the graphs. 36% of graphs had numerical distortion, which is specifically 
forbidden by FDA regulations. 

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