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Industry support and correlation to study outcome for papers published in Spine
Rahul V Shah1, Todd J Albert, Victoria Bruegel-Sanchez
1Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
Spine
|May 3, 2005
Summary
Industry funding in spine research is linked to a higher likelihood of positive results. This association may stem from potential biases in study design, interpretation, or publication, warranting reader awareness.
Area of Science:
- Spine research
- Medical research funding
- Publication bias
Background:
- Industry sponsorship in medicine often correlates with more favorable outcomes.
- This association has not been previously examined within spine research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between research sponsorship and study outcomes in the field of spine research.
- To determine if industry funding influences the conclusions reported in spine studies.
Main Methods:
- A retrospective review of articles published in the journal Spine between January 2002 and July 2003.
- Analysis of 527 eligible articles for subject, study design, funding source, and reported conclusions.
Main Results:
- Industry funding was reported in 15.9% of the reviewed articles.
- Industry-funded studies were 3.3 times more likely to report positive results compared to studies with other funding sources (P < 0.001).
Conclusions:
- Industry-funded spine research demonstrates a statistically significant tendency towards reporting positive outcomes.
- Potential biases in study design, methodology, interpretation, or publication may explain these findings.
- Readers should be aware of potential bias in industry-supported spine research due to increased reliance on such funding.