Association between funding source and study outcome in orthopaedic research.
The current report tests the hypotheses that commercial funding, country of origin, and presence of a coinvestigator with training in statistics are related to the likelihood of a published orthopaedic study arriving at a positive conclusion. All articles from the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (American), the Journal of Arthroplasty, and the American Journal of Sports Medicine published in 1 year were reviewed. The blinded review process classified each article as to study design and outcome (positive or negative), according to previously published definitions. Commercial funding was significantly associated with a positive outcome; 78.9% of commercially funded studies concluded with a positive outcome, compared with 63.3% of nonfunded studies. The presence of a statistician or epidemiologist as a coinvestigator, and the place of origin of the study were not associated with outcome. Only 21% of published studies were prospective, 3.5% were randomized, and 10.5% stated an experimental hypothesis; these factors were not associated with study outcome. Published studies that received funding from commercial parties were significantly more likely to report a positive outcome than studies that received no such funding. This does not imply the presence of a corrupting or causative influence of industry sponsorship on research outcomes; additional research is needed to determine whether such nonscientific factors actually affect study outcome or likelihood of publication.
Leopold
Seth S
SS
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. leopold@u.washington.edu
Warme
Winston J
WJ
Fritz Braunlich
E
E
Shott
Susan
S
D001319:Authorship; D015706:Bibliometrics; D001699:Biometry; D004813:Epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D009985:Orthopedics; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D017712:Peer Review, Research; D010506:Periodicals as Topic; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011643:Publishing / Q000191:economics*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012109:Research Support as Topic / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D014481:United States