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©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Methodol. Dec 26, 2015; 5(4): 175-178
Published online Dec 26, 2015. doi: 10.5662/wjm.v5.i4.175
Published online Dec 26, 2015. doi: 10.5662/wjm.v5.i4.175
Conflicts of interest in nutritional sciences: The forgotten bias in meta-analysis
Michel Lucas, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Université Laval, Population Health and Optimal Health Practices Research Unit, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Québec, Québec G1V 2M2, Canada
Michel Lucas, Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, United States
Author contributions: Lucas M conceived the idea of the manuscript, interpreted the data and wrote the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: (1) Dr. Lucas is Assistant Professor at Université Laval since July 2012, and Visiting Scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Full salary of Dr. Lucas comes from Université Laval and CHU de Québec, and is cover by a salary award from the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé (FRQS); (2) Between 1999 and 2012, while he was a student, Dr. Lucas often spoke at conferences (mainly on omega-3 fatty acids). His honoraria and expenses were covered by private industries. He has never received research funding from private industries; (3) Dr. Lucas has no relationships with entities that might have an interest in the submitted work; (4) Dr. Lucas’ spouse, children and partners have no financial relationships with the submitted work; and (5) Dr. Lucas does not have any non-financial interests in the submitted work.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Michel Lucas, Assistant Professor, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Université Laval, Population Health and Optimal Health Practices Research Unit, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Québec, 2875 Laurier Blvd., Delta 2 Building, Suite 600, Québec G1V 2M2, Canada. michel.lucas@crchuq.ulaval.ca
Telephone: +1-418-5254444 Fax: +1-418-6542726
Received: May 22, 2015
Peer-review started: May 22, 2015
First decision: August 19, 2015
Revised: September 14, 2015
Accepted: September 29, 2015
Article in press: September 30, 2015
Published online: December 26, 2015
Peer-review started: May 22, 2015
First decision: August 19, 2015
Revised: September 14, 2015
Accepted: September 29, 2015
Article in press: September 30, 2015
Published online: December 26, 2015
Core Tip
Core tip: Decision-making in the field of nutrition is based on published evidence, but when results are ambivalent, it is easier to opt for the status quo and ask for more studies. Because conflicts of interest (COI) in nutritional sciences can bias conclusions and negatively impact dietary recommendations and population health, it deserves more attention and requires careful analyses. To regard evidence properly and in a rigorous manner, COI in systematic reviews and meta-analyses must be evaluated systematically to guarantee the trustworthiness of nutrition-related studies, and must therefore be obligatory sub-analyses to reduce the risk of bias in data interpretation.