Healthy Skepticism Library item: 17258

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Chew M
Researchers, like politicians, use 'spin' in presenting their results, conference hears
BMJ 2009 Sep 15;
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/339/sep15_2/b3779

Abstract:

Politicians are not alone in using “spin” to sway their constituents. Researchers do too, according to two presentations at the International Congress of Peer Review and Biomedical Publication in Vancouver, Canada. Two preliminary explorations of this phenomenon were presented, one on studies with non-significant results, the other on studies claiming positive results.

Isabelle Boutron, of the Centre for Statistics in Medicine, Oxford, and University Paris Descartes, and colleagues said that “spin” was a way of reporting results with the aim of convincing the reader that an experimental treatment was beneficial, despite results that were not significant.

They looked at 72 randomised controlled trials with such outcomes and found that over 40% of these had “spin” in at least two of the three sections of main text, usually in the conclusion and discussion.

Some examples claimed equivalence with the control intervention or similar effectiveness or focused on secondary outcomes or subgroup . . .