Survey says most want disclosure of gifts to docs

Ben Comer

June 19, 2008

Sixty-eight percent of Americans surveyed said they are very likely or somewhat likely to support legislation requiring pharma companies to disclose gifts to doctors.

The telephone survey was conducted for Community Catalyst's Prescription Project by International Communications Research. Between June 4 and June 8, a total of 1,009 adults aged 18 and older responded, according to the study. The survey asked participants to respond to questions via Likert scale in an attempt to gage the public consensus on corporate gifts to physicians.

The findings suggest that 64% of the survey participants consider the importance of knowing physician's financial ties to pharma companies to be very important (33%) or somewhat important (31%). However, 55% of those surveyed reported it somewhat unlikely (13%) or very unlikely (42%) that they would ask a doctor directly about his or her relationship with pharma companies, according to the data.

When asked which types of gifts should not be allowed, 86% of respondents said travel expenses, while 51% said free drug samples should not be allowed.