ArticleBMC medical ethics2013
Underreporting of conflicts of interest in clinical practice guidelines: cross sectional study.
Article in BMC medical ethics, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The Influence of Industry Affiliation on Randomized Controlled Trials of Platelet-Rich Plasma for Knee Osteoarthritis.The American journal of sports medicine · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Association between conflicts of interest and favourable recommendations in clinical guidelines, advisory committee reports, opinion pieces, and narrative reviews: systematic review.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2020Pooled it
- Conflicts of interest in clinical guidelines, advisory committee reports, opinion pieces, and narrative reviews: associations with recommendations.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Migrant Healthcare Guidelines: A Systematic Quality Assessment.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2019Pooled it
- Time trends in the reporting of conflicts of interest, funding and affiliation with industry in intensive care research: a systematic review.Intensive care medicine · 2018Pooled it
- Methodological Quality and Content of Guidelines on Early Childhood Allergy Prevention: A Systematic Assessment and Content Analysis.Maternal & child nutrition · 2025Review
- Reporting Conflicts of Interest and Funding in Health Care Guidelines: The RIGHT-COI&F Checklist.Annals of internal medicine · 2024Article
- Association between Conflicts of Interest Disclosure and Quality of Clinical Practice Guidelines in Japan: A Meta-Epidemiological Study.Journal of personalized medicine · 2023Article
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- A critical appraisal of Evicore's guidelines for advanced diagnostic imaging of the spine for lower extremity pain with neurological features.Journal of spine surgery (Hong Kong) · 2023Article
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- Article
- Financial Conflicts of Interest Among Systematic Review Authors Investigating Interventions for Achilles Tendon Ruptures.Foot & ankle orthopaedics · 2021Article
- Financial Conflicts of Interest in Clinical Practice Guidelines: A Systematic Review.Mayo Clinic proceedings. Innovations, quality & outcomes · 2021Review
- Self-reported Financial Conflict of Interest in Nephrology Clinical Practice Guidelines.Kidney international reports · 2021Article
- Analysis of conflicts of interest among authors and researchers of European clinical guidelines in cardiovascular medicine.Clinical medicine (London, England) · 2021Article
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- Article
- Reporting of financial conflicts of interest by Canadian clinical practice guideline producers: a descriptive study.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundConflicts of interest affect recommendations in clinical guidelines and disclosure of such conflicts is important. However, not all conflicts of interest are disclosed. Using a public available disclosure list we determined the prevalence and underreporting of conflicts of interest among authors of clinical guidelines on drug treatments.
methodsWe included up to five guidelines published from July 2010 to March 2012 from each Danish clinical specialty society. Using the disclosure list of the Danish Health and Medicines Authority, we identified author conflicts of interest and compared them with the disclosures in the guidelines. For each guideline we extracted methodological characteristics of guideline development.
resultsForty-five guidelines from 14 specialty societies were included. Of 254 authors, 135 (53%) had conflicts of interest, corresponding to 43 of the 45 guidelines (96%) having one or more authors with a conflict of interest. Only one of the 45 guidelines (2%) disclosed author conflicts of interest. The most common type of conflict of interest (83 of the 135) was being a consultant, an advisory board member or a company employee. Only 10 guidelines (22%) described the methods used for guideline development, 27 (60%) used references in the text and 11 (24%) graded the types of evidence.
conclusionsConflicts of interest were common, but disclosures were very rare. Most guidelines did not describe how they were developed and many did not describe the evidence behind specific recommendations. Publicly available disclosure lists may assist guideline issuing bodies in ensuring that all conflicts are disclosed.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.