The quantity and quality of scientific graphs in pharmaceutical advertisements

We characterized the quantity and quality of graphs in all pharmaceutical advertisements, in the 10 U.S. medical journals. Four hundred eighty-four unique advertisements (of 3,185 total advertisements) contained 836 glossy and 455 small-print pages. Forty-nine percent of glossy page area was nonscientific figures/images, 0.4% tables, and 1.6% scientific graphs (74 graphs in 64 advertisements). All 74 graphs were univariate displays, 4% were distributions, and 4% contained confidence intervals for summary measures. Extraneous decoration (66%) and redundancy (46%) were common. Fifty-eight percent of graphs presented an outcome relevant to the drug's indication. Numeric distortion, specifically prohibited by FDA regulations, occurred in 36% of graphs.