Industry funding effect on positive results of probiotic use in the management of acute diarrhea: a systematized review
Open accessAbstract
Several investigations have found that industry-funded studies tend to inform results favoring the sponsored products. The pressure to demonstrate that a drug or a product causes a favorable outcome may result in investigation biases from industry-funded research. One example of this could be found in the probiotic research funded by the industry. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of industry funding on positive outcomes of the use of probiotics in the management of acute diarrhea. A systematized review of clinical trials on the use of probiotics in the management of acute diarrhea was performed. The associations between the source of funding, clinical outcomes, probiotic genus, and quality of the study were assessed using the χ-test and Fisher's exact test. Sixty-six clinical trials were included; 27 were industry funded, 18 were nonindustry funded, and 21 did not disclose their funding source. There were 48 positive and 30 negative clinical outcomes. There was no significant association between the source of funding and clinical outcomes (P=0.491). No association between the rest of the studied variables and outcomes was observed either (P>0.05). In clinical trials on the use of probiotics in the management of acute diarrhea, the source of funding has no influence on positive clinical outcomes.
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A recent review found no evidence that the source of funding for trials of probiotics in diarrhoea had affected trial results.
“However, a recent review found no evidence that the source of funding for trials of probiotics in diarrhoea had affected trial results (Saa 2019).”
From Probiotics for treating acute infectious diarrhoea (2020) · cites this paper as Saa 2019
Cites
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Probiotics for treating acute infectious diarrhoea
Collinson, S., Deans, A., Padua-Zamora, A., Gregorio, G. V., Li, C., Dans, L. F., & Allen, S. J. (2020) · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · doi:10.1002/14651858.cd003048.pub4 · Cited by 153 · see citing works
- Authors
- Saa, C., Bunout, D., & Hirsch, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Chile (CL)
- Corresponding author
- Hirsch, Sandra
- Venue
- European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology
- Published
- 2019-03
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 289-302
- ISSN
- 0954-691X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2903882574
- Cited by
- 10
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 0.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- Locations
- European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Universidad de Chile (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Pharmacology › Pharmaceutical industry and healthcare
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Probiotics and Fermented Foods
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Gastroenterology › Gastrointestinal motility and disorders
- Keywords
- industry funding, conflicts of interest, probiotics, acute diarrhea, funding disclosure, clinical trial results, research bias
- MeSH terms
- Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Acute Disease, Clinical Trials as Topic, Diarrhea, Drug Industry, Humans, Research Design, Research Support as Topic, Conflict of Interest, Treatment Outcome, Probiotics, Biomedical Research
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