Acceptance of pharmaceutical gifts. Variability by specialty and job rank in a Saudi healthcare setting.

OBJECTIVE To examine the variability in accepting different types of gifts by clinical specialty as well as job rank among physicians working in Saudi Arabia. METHODS This cross-sectional study was carried out between March and July of 2012 in different regions of Saudi Arabia. A self-administrated questionnaire was developed and administered to all participants, both in paper and electronic formats. RESULTS A total of 281 participants answered the question `do you accept pharmaceutical gifts and/or promotions?` Most of the participants (80.1%) admitted acceptance of pharmaceutical gifts of any type. The most common gifts accepted were free drug samples (58.2%), stationary items such as pens and notepads (52.9%), free meals (37.8%), financial support to attend educational activities (33.3%), prepaid promotion cards/codes (7.1%), and funding research (5.8%).While there were no significant differences in the overall gift acceptance by job rank or specialty, there were significant differences in type-specific gift acceptance by job rank and specialty. There were some differences in the reasons behind gift acceptance by specialty and job rank. CONCLUSION The results of this study indicate that gift acceptance among physicians working in Saudi Arabia is common; however, there was no significant differences in the overall gift acceptance by job rank or specialty. Nevertheless, there were significant differences in type-specific gift acceptance by job rank and specialty.