| Abstract: | This study was conducted to assess how much is physicians in private hospitals of Addis Ababa
are exposed to pharmaceutical‟s promotional tools, to determine whether these promotional tools
affect prescribing patterns of physicians and analyze the relationship between the promotional
tools and prescribing pattern of physicians. Thus it aims to bridge this gap in literature and
knowledge. The study employs a descriptive research design and uses quantitative approach. A
survey is conducted by using structured close ended questionnaires which is distributed to
269 doctors practicing in private hospitals of Addis Ababa. Descriptive, correlation and
multiple regression statistical tools were deployed to examine the relationship between
pharmaceutical marketing activities and physicians‟ prescribing pattern. The result of the
research revealed that physicians working in private hospitals of Addis are exposed to the given
promotional tools in various levels; face to face detailing being the one they are exposed to
highly. At the same time the responses exposed that all the given promotional tools affect the
influencer. The inferential statistics result revealed that face to face detailing and sponsoring of
meetings and educational programs are best predictors of physicians prescribing behavior. As
expected, there was a positive and significant relationship between promotional activities, such
as face-to-face detailing, free drug samples, gifts, sponsoring, and invitations, and physicians'
prescribing patterns. In conclusion the study found that face to face detailing is the highest
exposure for physicians to pharmaceuticals' promotional activities, followed by gifts, free drug
samples sponsoring and invitations. The correlation coefficient between dependent variable and
independent variable is between 0.402 and 0.584, indicating a moderate to strong association. In
regression analysis, 42.5% PPP is found to be due to promotional activities by pharmaceutical
companies. This suggests a positive and significant relationship between promotional activities
and physicians' prescribing behavior. Previous literatures have found that promotional activities
by pharmaceuticals significantly impact physicians' prescribing pattern. This study also found
that the highest impact is face to face detailing and the lowest is invitation, while the second,
third and fourth influencers are sponsoring, gifts and free drug samples. Recommendation and
future studies are forwarded. |
