Portrayal of female physicians in cardiovascular advertisements

BACKGROUND: Despite increasing numbers of female medical school graduates, few women enter cardiovascular specialties. Pharmaceutical promotion may influence physician behaviour. It is unclear how female physicians are represented in cardiovascular advertisements, which may, in rum, influence physician perceptions. OBJECTIVES: To determine if female and male physicians are equally represented in cardiovascular advertisements. METHODS: All cardiovascular advertisements from American editions of general medical and cardiovascular journals published between January 1, 1996, and June 30, 1998, were examined. For each unique advertisement, the total number of journal appearances and the number of appearances in journals' premium positions were recorded. The role, sex, age and race of the primary figure featured in the advertisement were noted. RESULTS: Nine hundred nineteen unique advertisements were identified, 35 of which depicted a physician as the primary figure. Six (17%, 95% CI 8.1% to 32.7%) of these advertisements portrayed a female physician, while 29 (83%, 95% CI 67.3% to 91.9%) depicted a male physician (P<0.001). Female physician advertisements appeared in journals 39 times (20.7%; 95% CI 2.8% to 43.5%), while male physician advertisements appeared 149 times (79.3%; 95% CI 56.596 to 97.2%) (P=0.01). The odds ratio for a female physician advertisement appearing in a premium position compared with a male physician advertisement was 0.25 (95% CI 0.09 to 0.68). CONCLUSION: The relative paucity of female physicians in cardiovascular advertisements is a concern because it may both reflect and reinforce sex asymmetries in cardiovascular specialties.