The Effect of Financial Conflict of Interest, Disclosure Status, and Relevance on Medical Research from the United States

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Financial interactions between industry and healthcare providers are reportable. Substantial discrepancies have been detected between industry and selfreport of these conflicts of interest (COIs). OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to determine if authors who fail to disclose reportable COI are more likely to publish findings that are favorable to industry than authors with no COI. DESIGN: In this blinded, observational study of medical and surgical primary research articles in PubMed, 590 articles were reviewed. MAIN MEASURES: Reportable financial relationships between authors and industry were evaluated. COIs were considered to have relevance if they were associated with the product(s) mentioned by an article. Primary outcome was favorability, defined as an impression favorable to the product(s) discussed by an article and determined by 3 independent, blinded clinicians for each article. Primary analysis compared Incomplete Self-Disclosure to No COI. Two-level multivariable mixed-effects ordered logistic regression was used to assess factors associated with favorability. KEY RESULTS: A 69% discordance rate existed between industry and self-report in COI disclosure. When authors failed to disclose COI, their conclusions were more likely to favor industry partners than authors without COI (favorable ratings 73% versus 62%, RR 1.18, p = < 0.001). On univariate (any COI 74% versus no COI 62%, RR 1.11, p = < 0.001) and multivariable analyses, any COI was associated with favorability. CONCLUSIONS: All financial COIs (disclosed or undisclosed, relevant or not relevant, research or nonresearch) influence whether studies report findings favorable to industry sponsors.

Research Review: Conflicts of Interest (COIs) in autism early intervention research – a meta‐analysis of COI influences on intervention effects

“…Our results indicate that, in autism early intervention research, the presence of the COI types we coded is similar to other fields that have extended effort toward accounting for COIs in published literature (Cherla et al, 2019; Okike et al, 2009). Interestingly, several COIs appear to be associated with one another.…”

“…In research fields such as medicine, public health, substance abuse prevention, and criminology, meta‐analyses have been conducted to investigate the influence of COIs on effect sizes reported in intervention studies. This work has shown that studies conducted by researchers with COIs are more likely to show positive findings than studies conducted by researchers who do not have COIs (Cherla et al, 2019; Chivers, 2019; Delgado & Delgado, 2017; Wells, 2017). In the medical field, where COIs have the longest history of being reported and investigated, COIs are considered ubiquitous and disclosure rates are around 70% of all published studies.…”

“…This work has shown that studies conducted by researchers with COIs are more likely to show positive findings than studies conducted by researchers who do not have COIs where COIs have the longest history of being reported and investigated, COIs are considered ubiquitous and disclosure rates are around 70% of all published studies. Importantly, this number (while high) is probably an underestimate of the true prevalence of COIs in medical research (Cherla et al, 2019;Okike et al, 2009). While other fields have spent time investigating COI prevalence and impacts, very little of this work has been done in autism early intervention research.…”

Research Trends in Anticoagulation Therapy over the Last 25 Years

“…Financial relationships between authors and industry has been shown to improve published outcomes in favor of industry partners. 19 These results suggest that future research, which minimizes or removes potential sponsorship bias, may have a role in improving the quality of evidence related to anticoagulation therapy.…”

“…All publication originated from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member countries. The United States had the largest contribution (43), followed by Canada (19), United Kingdom (10), and The Netherlands (8).…”