Exposed! The Objective Science of Modern Medicine
Think published medical studies are objective and trustworthy? This systematic review exposes the spin in medical science. . . .
Your familiar with spin in the media. But, it turns out, spin is just as real a problem in medical science. Researchers put a spin on their research when they subjectively report their findings in a way that manipulates readers to understand their conclusions favourably. The subjective reporting distorts the interpretation of the actual results and misleads people about the medical benefits of the intervention being studied.
This important new systematic review looked at 35 papers that analyzed spin in hundreds of published studies. Disturbingly, they found spin in all kinds of medical studies. Overall, they found spin in 56% of studies. They found it in randomized controlled studies, they found it in 26% of systematic reviews and they found it in 84% of uncontrolled observations studies.
Some of the most common spin crimes included reporting statistically nonsignificant results as showing an effect or cherry picking by reporting secondary benefits while omitting the failure of the primary outcome the study was designed to measure. 30% of abstracts and 22% of full texts of studies with nonsignificant results spun their conclusions to a “high” level.
Other types of spin included making an inappropriate recommendation for clinical practice that is not supported by the studies results. Sometimes endpoints identified in the methods section are left out of the conclusion or abstract so the nonsignificant result is hidden in the shadows. Other examples of spin included writing unjustifiably optimistic abstracts (which are all most people read), rationalizing to explain away nonsignificant results and underreporting adverse events.
So be careful of the confidence of the science behind modern medicine. And read carefully!
PLoS Biol 2017;15(9):e2002173
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