Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Nov:289:114450.
doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114450. Epub 2021 Oct 1.

Alcohol, cardiovascular disease and industry funding: A co-authorship network analysis of systematic reviews

Su Golder  1 , Jim McCambridge  2
Affiliations

Alcohol, cardiovascular disease and industry funding: A co-authorship network analysis of systematic reviews

Su Golder et al. Soc Sci Med. 2021 Nov.

Abstract

Background: Alcohol's effects on heart health is the site of a major scientific controversy. We conducted a co-authorship network analysis of systematic reviews on the impacts on alcohol on cardiovascular disease (CVD) in order to investigate patterns of co-authorship in the literature, with particular attention given to industry funding.

Methods: We used Epistemonikos to identify systematic reviews. Review characteristics, influential authors, co-authorship subnetworks, prior histories of alcohol industry funding, study outcomes and citations were investigated.

Results: 60 systematic reviews with 231 unique authors met our inclusion criteria. 14 systematic reviews were undertaken by authors with histories of alcohol industry funding, including 5 that were funded directly by the alcohol industry itself. All 14 such reviews identified a cardioprotective effect of alcohol. These formed distinct co-authorship subnetworks within the literature. Of reviews by authors with no prior histories of alcohol industry funding, the findings were mixed, with 54% (25/46) concluding there was evidence of health protective effects. These two groups of reviews differed in other respects. Those with industry funding were more likely to study broader outcomes such as 'cardiovascular disease' or 'coronary heart disease' as opposed to specific CVD issues such as hypertension or stroke (93% [13/14] versus 41% [19/46]) (chi-squared 12.4, p < 0.001) and have more included studies (mean of 29 versus 20). They were also more widely cited by others. Over time the proportions of systematic reviews on CVD and alcohol undertaken by authors with no prior histories of alcohol industry funding has increased.

Conclusions: Systematic reviews undertaken by authors with histories of alcohol industry funding were more likely to study broader outcomes, and be cited more widely, and exclusively reported favorable conclusions.

Keywords: Alcohol drinking; Alcohol industry; Authorship; Bibliometrics; Cardiovascular diseases; Conflict of interest; Research support; Systematic reviews.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf and declare: JM and SG had financial support from the Wellcome Trust for the submitted work, via an Investigator Award to the former (200321/Z/15/Z); no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Co-authorship network analysis: Subnetworks 1 to 9. Legend: Colour coding of authors of systematic reviews. Blue (72.9%): author has no known history of alcohol industry research funding. Red (27.1%): author has previously received alcohol industry research funding. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Mean number of times systematic reviews cited in each year.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Arredondo Bruce A., Del Risco Morales O. Cardio protector action of the alcohol moderated usage. Rev medica electron. 2014;36(2):181–194.
    1. Babor T.F., Robaina K. Public health, academic medicine, and the alcohol industry's corporate social responsibility activities. Am. J. Publ. Health. 2013;103(2):206–214. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2012.300847. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bagnardi V., Zatonski W., Scotti L., et al. Does drinking pattern modify the effect of alcohol on the risk of coronary heart disease? Evidence from a meta-analysis. J. Epidemiol. Community Health. 2008;62(7):615–619. doi: 10.1136/jech.2007.065607. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Barbalho S.M., Ottoboni A., Fiorini A.M.R., et al. Grape juice or wine: which is the best option? Crit. Rev. Food Sci. Nutr. 2010;14 doi: 10.1080/10408398.2019.1710692. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bero L. Implications of the tobacco industry documents for public health and policy. Annu. Rev. Publ. Health. 2003;24:267–288. doi: 10.1146/annurev.publhealth.24.100901.140813. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types