A metaresearch study revealed susceptibility of Covid-19 treatment research to white hat bias: first, do no harm.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To investigate the presence of white hat bias in Covid-19 treatment research by evaluating the effects of citation and reporting bias.

Study design and setting

Citation bias was investigated by assessing the degree of agreement between evidence provided by a remdesivir randomized controlled trial and its citing articles. The dissimilarity of outcomes derived from nonrandomized and randomized studies was tested by a meta-analysis of hydroxychloroquine effects on mortality. The differential influence of studies with beneficial over those with neutral results was evaluated by a bibliometric analysis.

Results

The articles citing the ACTT-1 remdesivir trial preferentially presented its positive outcomes in 55.83% and its negative outcomes in 6.43% of cases. The h

SUBMITTER: Bellos I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7997163 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature