Abstract
Objective To determine whether reminding resident physicians of the sacrifices made to obtain training, as well as suggesting this as a potential rationalization, increases self-stated willingness to accept gifts from industry.
Design, Setting, and Participants Three hundred one US resident physicians from 2 sample populations (pediatrics and family medicine) who were recruited during March-July 2009 participated in a survey presented as evaluating quality of life and values.
Intervention Physicians were randomly assigned to receive 1 of 3 different online surveys. The sacrifice reminders survey (n = 120) asked questions about sacrifices made in medical training, followed by questions regarding the acceptability of receiving gifts from industry. The suggested rationalization survey (n = 121) presented the same sacrifice questions, followed by a suggested possible rationalization (based on sacrifices made in medical training) for acceptance of gifts, before the questions regarding the acceptability of gifts. The control survey (n = 60) asked about the acceptability of gifts before asking questions about sacrifices or suggesting a rationalization.
Main Outcome Measures Physician self-stated acceptability of receiving gifts from industry.
Results Reminding physicians of sacrifices made in obtaining their education resulted in gifts being evaluated as more acceptable: 21.7% (13/60) in the control group vs 47.5% (57/120) in the sacrifice reminders group (odds ratio, 1.81; 95% confidence interval, 1.27-2.58; P = .001). Although most residents disagreed with the suggested rationalization, exposure to it further increased the perceived acceptability of gifts to 60.3% (73/121) in that group (odds ratio relative to sacrifice reminders group, 1.45; 95% confidence interval, 1.22-1.72; P < .001).
Conclusions Providing resident physicians with reminders of sacrifices increased the perceived acceptability of industry-sponsored gifts. Including a rationalization statement further increased gift acceptability.
