Recent studies of drug promotion and labeling in Third World countries since 1972 have observed important changes in the policies of multinational corporations. Earlier studies found that multinational and national drug companies often grossly exaggerated the indications for the drugs and minimized or ignored the hazards. In the latest study, initiated in 1987, considerable improvement in promotional practices of the multinational corporations has been found, but little or no improvement on the part of the national companies. As a result, physicians are still provided with grossly exaggerated claims and the hazards of prescription drugs are covered up or glossed over. A very serious problem--the marketing of fraudulent drug products--has been identified in a number of Third World countries. Drug products are shaped and colored to resemble the original multinational company product, but contain only a small percentage of the active ingredient stated on the label, or perhaps none at all. In Indonesia fraudulent drug products may represent 20-30% of all drug products in the market. Similar fraudulent products have been reported in Brazil, Thailand, Bangladesh and Malaysia.
Matched MeSH terms: Marketing of Health Services/methods*
In 1981 the World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes out of concern that inappropriate marketing of breastmilk substitutes was contributing to the alarming decline in breastfeeding worldwide and the increase in child malnutrition and mortality, particularly in developing countries.
Matched MeSH terms: Marketing of Health Services/legislation & jurisprudence*; Marketing of Health Services/standards
The commercialization of health services has wide ranging implications for all medical specialties as well as for patients. Factors that must be considered include not only the financial implications, but also questions of quality and academic interests such as teaching and training. Laboratories must provide a service that the purchaser wishes to buy and must be successful in overcoming competition from the private sector. Each component part of the overall service must be analyzed in order that the laboratory is efficiently structured to provide an optimum service. A good understanding of management issues and a flexible approach are paramount in the provision of efficient, cost-effective and quality service for the ultimate benefit of the patient.
Matched MeSH terms: Marketing of Health Services/economics*; Marketing of Health Services/organization & administration
The increased development of hospital services in Hong Kong over the last decade has given rise in the demand for more recruits to join the nursing profession. Despite the advancement in education and the improvement in the working conditions, the problems of attracting sufficient new recruits remain critical. This study aimed to examine high school students' attitudes towards the nursing profession and to identify the contributing factors affecting shortage of nurses within the context of Hong Kong. A convenience sample of 375 high school students was recruited. A questionnaire was used to measure their knowledge, attitudes and intention to study nursing. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to describe their career preferences and to compare knowledge, attitudes and intention scales between gender and nursing exposure groups. Results indicated that the students were generally knowledgeable about nursing but were reluctant to pursue nursing as a career. However, students who were socially acquainted with a nurse demonstrated a slightly more positive attitude towards nursing and slightly higher intention to pursue nursing as a career compared with those having no social acquaintance with a nurse. Implications for promotion of nursing profession and limitations of the study were discussed.
Physicians should play a leading role in combatting smoking; information on attitudes of future physicians towards tobacco control measures in a middle-income developing country is limited. Of 310 future physicians surveyed in a medical school in Malaysia, 50% disagreed that it was a doctor's duty to advise smokers to stop smoking; 76.8% agreed that physicians should not smoke before advising others not to smoke; and 75% agreed to the ideas of restricting the sale of cigarettes to minors, making all public places smoke-free and banning advertising of tobacco-related merchandise. Future physicians had positive attitudes towards tobacco regulations but had not grasped their responsibilities in tobacco control measures.