Nature: Health researchers report funder pressure to suppress results

They have no idea how deep this goes.


Small study hints that interference from bodies funding research into public-health issues such as nutrition and exercise might be more common than realized.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02242-x

A survey of public-health researchers has found numerous instances of trial results being suppressed on topics such as nutrition, sexual health, physical activity and substance use, with 18% of respondents reporting that they had, on at least one occasion, felt pressured by funders to delay reporting, alter or not publish findings.

The survey, published in PLoS One1, involved 104 researchers from regions including North America, Europe and Oceania who have led trials to evaluate behavioural interventions designed to improve public-health outcomes.

These trials, published between 2007 and 2017, were cited in Cochrane reviews, which are considered the ‘gold standard’ of evidence used to inform health-care decision-making.

Public-health research has a history of interference from industry funders, so the team behind the study, led by Sam McCrabb at the University of Newcastle in Australia, expected researchers running industry-funded studies to be those most commonly acting under duress. “But we didn’t find any instances of that,” she says.
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