Financial disclosures of authors involved in spine research: an underestimated source of bias

Abstract

BackgroundReporting financial disclosures has become standard practice in both journal publications and during oral forum at scientific meetings. Despite this, the effect of reporting a financial disclosure of any member of an authorgroup, on the tone of the conclusion of an article has gained little attention. This study was performed to determine what effect reporting a financial disclosure has on the conclusion of an article.MethodsA literature search for all articles on interspinous devices and cervical disc prostheses, published from January 1st, 2008 until December 1st, 2010 was performed. Financial disclosures were reported, as were funding by commercially active parties. The tone of the conclusions was graded as positive, neutral or negative.ResultsThe odds ratio (OR) for a positive conclusion in cases where a financial disclosure was reported was 16.5 (95% CI: 4.7–58.1). Effect modification occurs with the presence of funding by a commercially active party. In cases where a financial disclosure was reported and funding was available for the study, the OR was 1.0 (95% CI: 0.08–12.6), whilst the OR was 33.3 (95%CI: 4.2–262.3) if funding was not provided. This discrepancy is mainly due to the large number of articles with a neutral/negative conclusion if the authors failed to report any financial disclosure and were not funded by a commercially active party.ConclusionsReporting a financial disclosure is a potential source of bias. Authors with disclosed financial relationships less often publish articles with a neutral/negative conclusion. This source of bias should certainly be taken into account during the critical appraisal of articles, particularly when the quality of the literature is being assessed.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00586-011-2086-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Potential Conflicts of Interest of Editorial Board Members from Five Leading Spine Journals

“…Although conflict of interest policies typically focus on financial relationships, as these are relatively objective and quantifiable, all kinds of conflicts of interest exist including the desire for professional advancement, recognition for personal achievement, and favors to friends and colleagues [ 7 ]. Conflicts of interest arising from ties between industry and physicians may potentially bias research, influence medical decision-making and even jeopardize patient health and the public’s trust in medicine [ 3 – 5 , 8 – 15 ]. As a result, reporting disclosures of (potential) conflicts of interest has become mandatory for authors of medical publications and presenters during scientific meetings to provide their audience with the opportunity to appreciate results in light of the disclosures, but this is not the case for reviewers and editors of scientific journals, nor for abstract reviewers of medical conferences [ 8 ].…”

“…Conflicts of interest arising from ties between industry and physicians may potentially bias research, influence medical decision-making and even jeopardize patient health and the public’s trust in medicine [ 3 – 5 , 8 – 15 ]. As a result, reporting disclosures of (potential) conflicts of interest has become mandatory for authors of medical publications and presenters during scientific meetings to provide their audience with the opportunity to appreciate results in light of the disclosures, but this is not the case for reviewers and editors of scientific journals, nor for abstract reviewers of medical conferences [ 8 ]. Medical journals strive to be objective and reliable sources of scientific information within a specific field of medicine and go to great lengths to ensure scientific integrity of their publications.…”

Influence of industry on scientific reports

“…It is also a confirmation of the fact that studies published by authors with a financial disclosure are biased [4]. Although paid for intellectual property, nobody will claim a negative result when a large amount of money is involved.…”

Nível de evidência e patrocínio industrial associado a desfechos favoráveis nas publicações sobre terapia com plasma rico em plaquetas nas doenças osteomusculares

“…Other authors corroborated these data, with 41.3% of the articles without information relating to the financial backing. 17 Therefore, we believe that the frequency of articles sponsored by health industries cannot be precisely determined by the methodology used. Even if the industry, the profession and the patient have many shared interests, they also may have real or potential conflicting interests.…”