Reporting bias inflates the reputation of medical treatments: A comparison of outcomes in clinical trials and online product reviews

• Published in: Social science & medicine (1982) Vol. 177; pp. 248 - 255
• Main Author: de Barra, Mícheál
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2017; Pergamon Press Inc
• Subjects: Averages; Bias; Cholesterol; Clinical outcomes; Clinical research; Clinical trials; Cultural evolution; Data Accuracy; Drugs; eHealth; Health care; Health informatics; Health problems; Health services; Humans; Hypercholesterolemia - drug therapy; Internet; Lactones - pharmacology; Lactones - therapeutic use; Low income groups; Medical literature; Medical overuse; Medical research; Medical treatment; Medicine; Mouth; Orlistat; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) - standards; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) - statistics & numerical data; Product reviews; Reputations; Research Design - standards; Sitosterols - pharmacology; Sitosterols - therapeutic use; Therapeutics - methods; Therapeutics - standards; Treatment methods; Treatment outcomes; Variance analysis; Weight loss; Word of mouth; Cultural evolution; Word of mouth; Medical overuse; Health informatics; eHealth
• ISSN: 0277-9536; 1873-5347; 1873-5347
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.01.033

People often hold unduly positive expectations about the outcomes of medicines and other healthcare products. Here the following explanation is tested: people who have a positive outcome tend to tell more people about their disease/treatment than people with poor or average outcomes. Akin to the fil...