Situation of Medical Advertisements Broadcasted on Radios in Rural Districts of Northern Thailand

Abstract

Objective: To survey the situation of illegal medicine advertisements broadcasted on radios in suburb of northern Thailand. Methods: The study surveyed advertisements of modern medicines broadcasted on radios in 2 districts in a northern province of Thailand by randomly recording them from 13 local stations with recordable quality of broadcasting. The programs were randomly recorded from the beginning to the closing time of each station. For each station, the broadcasting programs were recorded for 4 days, i.e., 2 weekdays, Saturday and Sunday. Results: Five stations (38.46%) violated the law on advertisings of modern medicines. We observed a total of 50 different advertisements of modern medicines with 37 being illegal (74.0%). The most common modern medicines being advertised were antibiotics such as tetracycline (19 advertisements) and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as piroxicam (18 advertisements). Three most commonly violated broadcastings were on 1) presenting indications of dangerous drugs (54.0%); 2) over-claiming of indications, exaggerated or false claim (52%); 3) persuading consumers to use medicines unnecessarily (42.0%). Conclusion: In rural communities, radio advertisements of illegal medicines were still a problem. This could lead to irrational drug use and harm in the consumers. Therefore, authorities on consumer protection in the area of medicine advertisements and health professionals should collectively act to resolve illegal advertising of medicines.