Prescribing habits of Peruvian physicians and factors influencing them

A survey conducted between September 1991 and August 1992 approached 800 physicians in two marginal areas of the cities of Lima and Chimbote, Peru. Among other things, the survey sought data about information sources influencing the drug prescription practices of Peruvian physicians, about how these practices were modified by experience, and about the rationality of drug treatments prescribed for dealing with selected common ailments. Of the 800 physicians, 184 had already established themselves in private practice, 309 were recent medical school graduates, and 307 did not complete the survey questionnaire. The responses provided suggested that knowledge acquired in medical school had little influence on the prescribing habits of either the established physicians or the recent graduates. Over two-thirds of both groups (69.6% of the physicians in private practice and 79.9% of the recent medical school graduates) indicated that their primary source of drug information was medical literature. Overall, however, data from this and related studies suggest that while the medical school influence was limited, the role of medical literature was less powerful than the survey participants claimed-because advertising materials distributed by pharmaceutical companies appeared to constitute a key source of information, one that tended to promote irrational drug use.