ArticleSocial science & medicine (1982)2021
Alcohol, cardiovascular disease and industry funding: A co-authorship network analysis of systematic reviews.
Article in Social science & medicine (1982), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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.
The trial behind it
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
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- From the tobacco industry's uses of science for public relations purposes to the alcohol industry: Tobacco industry documents study.Drug and alcohol review · 2023Pooled it
- Exploring the motives for drinking less alcohol and attitudes towards abstinence in individuals with low-to-moderate alcohol use - a mixed-methods study.BMC public health · 2026Trial
- A systematic review of operational research modelling for alcohol consumption and its consequences.Health systems (Basingstoke, England) · 2026Review
- The International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research (ISFAR) critiques of alcohol research: Promoting health benefits and downplaying harms.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2025Article
- Alcohol industry conflicts of interest: The pollution pathway from misinformation to alcohol harms.Future healthcare journal · 2025Article
- Randomised study of the effects of sense of entitlement and conflict of interest contrarianism on researcher decision-making to work with the alcohol industry.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Moral jeopardy, conflicts of interest and the integrity of public health research.International journal of epidemiology · 2024Article
- The Commercial Determinants of Health and Evidence Synthesis (CODES): methodological guidance for systematic reviews and other evidence syntheses.Systematic reviews · 2023Article
- The international center for alcohol policies (ICAP) book series: a key resource globally for alcohol industry political strategies.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2023Article
- Evolution of the major alcohol companies key global policy vehicle through the prism of tax records 2011-19.Globalization and health · 2023Article
- Alcohol and Cardiovascular Disease: Helpful or Hurtful.Reviews in cardiovascular medicine · 2023Review
- Alcohol and Public Health: Failure and Opportunity.The Milbank quarterly · 2023Article
- The emperor has no clothes: a synthesis of findings from the Transformative Research on the Alcohol industry, Policy and Science research programme.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2023Review
- Industry involvement in evidence production for genomic medicine: A bibliometric and funding analysis of decision impact studies.PloS one · 2023Article
- "Using information to shape perception": tobacco industry documents study of the evolution of Corporate Affairs in the Miller Brewing Company.Globalization and health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAlcohol's effects on heart health is the site of a major scientific controversy. We conducted a co-authorship network analysis of systematic reviews on the impacts on alcohol on cardiovascular disease (CVD) in order to investigate patterns of co-authorship in the literature, with particular attention given to industry funding.
methodsWe used Epistemonikos to identify systematic reviews. Review characteristics, influential authors, co-authorship subnetworks, prior histories of alcohol industry funding, study outcomes and citations were investigated.
results60 systematic reviews with 231 unique authors met our inclusion criteria. 14 systematic reviews were undertaken by authors with histories of alcohol industry funding, including 5 that were funded directly by the alcohol industry itself. All 14 such reviews identified a cardioprotective effect of alcohol. These formed distinct co-authorship subnetworks within the literature. Of reviews by authors with no prior histories of alcohol industry funding, the findings were mixed, with 54% (25/46) concluding there was evidence of health protective effects. These two groups of reviews differed in other respects. Those with industry funding were more likely to study broader outcomes such as 'cardiovascular disease' or 'coronary heart disease' as opposed to specific CVD issues such as hypertension or stroke (93% [13/14] versus 41% [19/46]) (chi-squared 12.4, p < 0.001) and have more included studies (mean of 29 versus 20). They were also more widely cited by others. Over time the proportions of systematic reviews on CVD and alcohol undertaken by authors with no prior histories of alcohol industry funding has increased.
conclusionsSystematic reviews undertaken by authors with histories of alcohol industry funding were more likely to study broader outcomes, and be cited more widely, and exclusively reported favorable conclusions.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.