Poor replication validity of biomedical association studies reported by newspapers.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To investigate the replication validity of biomedical association studies covered by newspapers.

Methods

We used a database of 4723 primary studies included in 306 meta-analysis articles. These studies associated a risk factor with a disease in three biomedical domains, psychiatry, neurology and four somatic diseases. They were classified into a lifestyle category (e.g. smoking) and a non-lifestyle category (e.g. genetic risk). Using the database Dow Jones Factiva, we investigated the newspaper coverage of each study. Their replication validity was assessed using a comparison with their corresponding meta-analyses.

Results

Among the 5029 articles of our database, 156 primary studies (of which 63 were lifestyle studies) and 5 meta-analysis articles were repor

SUBMITTER: Dumas-Mallet E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5319681 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature