Beverage research tied to corporate dollars

[Guest guest]

Quite a day for conflict of interest! The WSJ and now From the front page of

the Boston Globe:

<http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/01/09/beverage_research_tie

d_to_corporate_dollars/>

Beverage research tied to corporate dollars

Conflict of interest seen when industry finances studies

By , Globe Staff | January 9, 2007

Scientific research on soft drinks, juices, and milk was four to eight times

more likely to yield health results favorable to companies if it was

sponsored by the food industry than research with no corporate ties, a study

released last night found. The report suggests that nutrition research, like

drug research, may be tainted by special-interest dollars.

Scientists from Children's Hospital Boston evaluated 111 beverage studies

published between Jan. 1, 1999, and Dec. 31, 2003, and found that industry

paid for some or all of a majority of the research, a finding that surprised

even Dr. Ludwig, a veteran nutrition researcher who presided over the

Children's study. The Boston scientists, whose findings appear in the online

journal PLoS Medicine, emphasized that they're not accusing individual

researchers of scientific skullduggery, but also acknowledged that they

don't have a definitive explanation for their results.

The ethics of scientific research has been a hot topic in classrooms and

laboratories during the past few years, stoked by revelations that some

studies of blockbuster painkillers ignored findings that would have made the

medication look bad. And previous scientific reviews have shown that drug

studies supported by pharmaceutical companies are more prone to side with

industry than studies sponsored by government or universities.

This expanding body of research made Ludwig and his colleagues curious about

the impact of corporate dollars on nutrition science.

" Conflicts of interest in pharmaceutical research could affect millions of

people taking medicines, " said Ludwig, director of the Optimal Weight for

Life program at Children's. " Conflicts of interest in nutrition research

could affect the health of everyone because we all eat. "

The stakes of such research are higher than ever: As the American waistline

balloons and patients deal with the complications of obesity, food companies

are increasingly trumpeting the power of their products to stifle cancer,

reverse heart disease, and shed pounds.

" I'm really glad they're publishing this, " said n Nestle, a nutrition

professor at New York University, because " food companies have only one

purpose in funding research, and that's to use the results in marketing. If

they can't use the results in marketing, then they're not going to fund it. "

One of the studies included in the review examined whether heavy consumption

of fruit juice made children shorter and fatter, as previous work had

suggested. The researchers, who interviewed parents and weighed and measured

children, didn't find such a link. The study was underwritten, in part, by

Gerber Products Co., a leading maker of food for children.

An author of that study, retired University of Tennessee nutrition scientist

Betty Ruth Carruth, said Gerber had approached her about doing a study of

children and their eating habits after reviewing her earlier work.

" Yes, they funded it but they never, ever indicated to us that we had to do

it one way or another, " said Carruth, whose study was published in 1999 in

the prestigious journal Pediatrics. " You establish going in that what data

you get, that's what you report. "

The Children's team limited their review to beverages -- in part, because

drinks are highly profitable and because they're aggressively marketed to

children.

The researchers hunted for studies appearing in scientific journals and then

evaluated the studies' conclusions, rating them as favorable, neutral, or

unfavorable to the beverage industry. The authors also examined the research

papers to see whether they indicated who paid for the studies and classified

them as being backed fully by industry dollars, partially supported by

industry, or underwritten by entities outside the beverage industry.

Their finding: Industry paid in full for 22 percent of the studies, and

partially for 32 percent more. And when looking only at studies that reached

a favorable or unfavorable conclusion, research funded exclusively with

industry money was as much as eight times more likely to result in findings

positive for companies and their trade associations than studies with no

industry money.

In one especially striking discovery, the Children's researchers looked

specifically at those studies that directly intervened in participants'

health by, say, providing a beverage to drink and then measuring

participants' health. None of the industry-funded studies in that class

produced unfavorable results, while 37 percent of those without industry

sponsorship generated negative findings.

An executive with a leading dairy industry group said in an interview that

his association only supports researchers with an impeccable track record of

scientific integrity. When the National Dairy Council underwrites research,

it aims for studies that will stress the benefits of dairy products, said

Greg , the council's executive vice president for science and

innovation.

" We're not sticking our head in the sand and ignoring issues we need to be

aware of, " said. " We want to be truthful. But the majority of studies

are related to the role and the benefit of dairy products in a healthy

diet. "

In a given year, said, the council provides anywhere from " a couple

of million dollars " to as much as $9 million to support research. The

council, he said, never asks researchers to manipulate data, but asks them

to report back regularly about what they're finding and may ask them to

consider additional factors in their studies. said researchers funded

by the council must promise to publish their results in journals that are

reviewed by peer scientists.

The Dairy Council as well as the American Beverage Association, another

industry confederation, lambasted the Children's report yesterday, saying it

failed to assess the quality of each study.

" This is yet another attack on industry by activists who demonstrate their

own biases in their review by looking only at the funding source and not

judging the research on its merits, " K. Neely, president of the

beverage association, said in a statement.

Ludwig said the researchers, whose study was funded by the H. Hood

Foundation and Children's Hospital, did not set out to assess the quality of

individual studies but instead, to look for trends in funding and research

outcomes.

The apparent link between funding sources and research outcomes could

reflect everything from unconscious bias on the part of researchers to

strategic decisions by food companies to sponsor only research likely to

produce favorable results, nutrition specialists said.

Dr. JoAnn Manson, who has studied the deleterious health effects of

sugar-laden soft drinks, said the Children's study offers a cautionary

lesson for consumers.

" It suggests that it is very important when the public is hearing about a

research study that they do understand who sponsored the study, the strength

of the evidence, and whether the study findings are open to interpretation, "

said Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital .

can be reached at stsmith@....

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