Quality of pharmaceutical advertising and gender bias in medical journals (1998-2008): a review of the scientific literature

Objective: To review the scientific literature on pharmaceutical advertising aimed at health professionals in order to determine whether gender bias has decreased and the quality of information in pharmaceutical advertising has improved over time. Methods: We performed a content analysis of original articles dealing with medical drug promotion (1998-2008), according to quality criteria such as (a) the number, validity and accessibility of bibliographic references provided in pharmaceutical advertising and (b) the extent to which gender representations were consistent with the prevalence of the diseases. Databases: PUBMED, Medline, Scopus, Sociological Abstract, Eric and LILACS. Results: We reviewed 31 articles that analyzed advertising in medical journals from 1975-2005 and were published between 1998 and 2008. We found that the number of references used to support pharmaceutical advertising claims increased from 1975 but that 50% of these references were not valid. There was a tendency to depict men in paid productive roles, while women appeared inside the home or in non-occupational social contexts. Advertisements for psychotropic and cardiovascular drugs overrepresented women and men respectively. Conclusions: The use of bibliographic references increased between 1998 and 2008. However, representation of traditional male-female roles was similar in 1975 and 2005. Pharmaceutical advertisements may contribute to reinforcing the perception that certain diseases are associated with the most frequently portrayed sex.

Energy Loss Function of Solids Assessed by Ion Beam Energy-Loss Measurements: Practical Application to Ta2O5

We present a study where the energy loss function of Ta2O5, initially derived in the optical limit for a limited region of excitation energies from reflection electron energy loss spectroscopy (REELS) measurements, was improved and extended to the whole momentum and energy excitation region through a suitable theoretical analysis using the Mermin dielectric function and requiring the fulfillment of physically motivated restrictions, such as the f- and KK-sum rules. The material stopping cross section (SCS) and energy-loss straggling measured for 300–2000 keV proton and 200–6000 keV helium ion beams by means of Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) were compared to the same quantities calculated in the dielectric framework, showing an excellent agreement, which is used to judge the reliability of the Ta2O5 energy loss function. Based on this assessment, we have also predicted the inelastic mean free path and the SCS of energetic electrons in Ta2O5.