Why Most Biomedical Findings Echoed by Newspapers Turn Out to be False: The Case of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Context: Because positive biomedical observations are more often published than those reporting no effect, initial observations are often refuted or attenuated by subsequent studies. Objective: To determine whether newspapers preferentially report on initial findings and whether they also report on subsequent studies. Methods: We focused on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Using Factiva and PubMed databases, we identified 47 scientific publications on ADHD published in the 1990s and soon echoed by 347 newspapers articles. We selected the ten most echoed publications and collected all their relevant subsequent studies until 2011. We checked whether findings reported in each ‘‘top 10’’ publication were consistent with previous and subsequent observations. We also compared the newspaper coverage of the ‘‘top 10’’ publications to that of their related scientific studies. Results: Seven of the ‘‘top 10’’ publications were initial studies and the conclusions in six of them were either refuted or strongly attenuated subsequently. The seventh was not confirmed or refuted, but its main conclusion appears unlikely. Among the three ‘‘top 10’’ that were not initial studies, two were confirmed subsequently and the third was attenuated. The newspaper coverage of the ‘‘top 10’’ publications (223 articles) was much larger than that of the 67 related studies (57 articles). Moreover, only one of the latter newspaper articles reported that the corresponding ‘‘top 10’’ finding had been attenuated. The average impact factor of the scientific journals publishing studies echoed by newspapers (17.1 n = 56) was higher (p,0.0001) than that corresponding to related publications that were not echoed (6.4 n = 56). Conclusion: Because newspapers preferentially echo initial ADHD findings appearing in prominent journals, they report on uncertain findings that are often refuted or attenuated by subsequent studies. If this media reporting bias generalizes to health sciences, it represents a major cause of distortion in health science communication.

Classically Cuban Concert "Recordando a Lecuona/Remembering Lecuona"

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Guantánamo and Cuban Nationalism, Lecture by Michael E. Parmly

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The Public Health of Cubans and Cuban Americans: A Symposium [Program]

This is the program for "The Public Health of Cubans and Cuban Americans: A Symposium".

The Public Health of Cubans and Cuban Americans: A Symposium

The flyer promotes the event"The Public Health of Cubans and Cuban Americans: A Symposium" cosponsored by the FlU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, the Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work, the Latin American and Caribbean Center, and the Center for Research on U.S. Latino HIV/AIDS and Drug Abuse (CRUSADA) and part of the CRI/LACC Cuba and the Professions Lecture Series.

One Voice, Two Attitudes: Perceptions of Spanish and English among Cuban Americans in Miami , Lecture by Phillip M. Carter

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Revisiting the Cuban-American Vote: A Symposium

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A Conference on The 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Gertrud is Gómez de Avellaneda: A Celebration of Nineteenth-Century Cuban Literature

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A New History of the Cuban Revolution: An Independent Interpretation , Lecture by Luis Martínez-Fernández

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Defining Moments: A Cuban Exile's Story about Discovery and the Search for a Better Future, Lecture by José I. Ramírez

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Cuban Hip-Hop in Miami: A Conversation Moderated by Nora Gámez Torres

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The Public Health of Cubans and Cuban Americans: A Symposium

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The African Roots of Cuban Culture : Artistic and Religious Expressions, A Symposium

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Three Generations of Cuban Authors: The 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s , Lecture by Reina María Rodríguez

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The Cuban Poetry of Alfonso Camín, Father of Afro-Cuban Poetry : Lecture by Victor Puertodan

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