ABS: Christakis, Do physicians judge a study by its cover? An investigation of journal attribution bias

[Gretchen Whitney]

author: dachris at u.washington.edu

Title   :       Do physicians judge a study by its cover? An investigation
of journal attribution bias
Author  :       Christakis DA, Saint S, Saha S, Elmore JG, Welsh DE, Baker
P, Koepsell TDJ
Journal :       JOURNAL OF CLINICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY  53: (8) 773-778 AUG 2000

 Document type: Article    Language: English    Cited References: 11
Times Cited: 0


Abstract:
The effect of a journal's prestige on readers' impressions of an article is
unknown. Two hypotheses were tested: first, that attribution of a study to
a " high" prestige journal would be associated with improved impressions
and attribution to a "low" prestige journal would be associated with
diminished impressions; and second, that formal training in epidemiology
and biostatistics would mitigate the effects of this journal attribution
bias.

The study was designed as a trial among a random sample of 264
internists. Participants were asked to read an article and an abstract
from either the Southern Medical Journal (SMJ) or the New England Journal
of Medicine (NEJM). Questionnaires were constructed that either attributed
the article or abstract to its source or presented it as
unattributed. After each article or abstract, respondents were asked to
rate the quality of the study, the appropriateness of the methodology
employed, the significance of the findings, and its likely effects on
their practice. A 20-point impression score was created based on responses
to these statements. The effect of attribution to a specific journal and
formal epidemiology training on impression scores were assessed using
linear regression. Of the 399 eligible participants, 264 questionnaires
were returned (response rate 66%). Differences in impression scores
associated with attribution of an article or abstract to the NEJM were .71
[95% C.I. (-.44-1.87)] and .50 [95% C.I. (-.87-1.87)]
respectively; differences in impression scores associated with attribution
of an article or abstract to the SMJ were -.12 [95% C.I. (-1.53-1.30)] and
-.95 [95% C.I. (-2.41-.52)]. A stratified analysis demonstrated that
epidemiology training did not meaningfully alter the effect of journal
attribution on participants' impression scores. If journal attribution bias
exists, it is likely to exert small and clinically insignificant
effects when physicians read articles carefully. Formal training in
epidemiology and biostatistics does not appear to alter these
results.

(C) 2000 Elsevier science Inc. All rights reserved.

Author Keywords:
evidence based medicine, mete-analysis, blinding, bias

Addresses:
Christakis DA, Univ Washington, Inst Child Hlth, 146 N Canal St, Suite 300,
Seattle, WA 98103 USA.
Univ Washington, Inst Child Hlth, Seattle, WA 98103 USA.
Univ Washington, Div Gen Pediat, Seattle, WA 98195 USA.
Univ Michigan, Div Gen Internal Med, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA.
Oregon Hlth Sci Univ, Portland VA Med Ctr, Div Gen Internal Med, Portland,
OR 97201 USA.
Univ Washington, Div Gen Internal Med, Seattle, WA 98195 USA.
Univ Washington, Dept Epidemiol, Seattle, WA 98195 USA.
Ann Arbor VA Hlth Serv Res & Dev, Ann Arbor, MI USA.
Seattle VA Med Ctr, Seattle, WA USA.
Univ Washington, Dept Hlth Serv, Seattle, WA 98195 USA.

Publisher:
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, OXFORD

IDS Number:
347CA

ISSN:
0895-4356


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