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Brown AW, Altman DG, Baranowski T, Bland JM, Dawson JA, Dhurandhar NV, Dowla S, Fontaine KR, Gelman A, Heymsfield SB, Jayawardene W, Keith SW, Kyle TK, Loken E, Oakes JM, Stevens J, Thomas DM, Allison DB. Childhood obesity intervention studies: A narrative review and guide for investigators, authors, editors, reviewers, journalists, and readers to guard against exaggerated effectiveness claims. Obes Rev 2019; 20:1523-1541. [PMID: 31426126 PMCID: PMC7436851 DOI: 10.1111/obr.12923] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2019] [Revised: 07/13/2019] [Accepted: 07/14/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Being able to draw accurate conclusions from childhood obesity trials is important to make advances in reversing the obesity epidemic. However, obesity research sometimes is not conducted or reported to appropriate scientific standards. To constructively draw attention to this issue, we present 10 errors that are commonly committed, illustrate each error with examples from the childhood obesity literature, and follow with suggestions on how to avoid these errors. These errors are as follows: using self-reported outcomes and teaching to the test; foregoing control groups and risking regression to the mean creating differences over time; changing the goal posts; ignoring clustering in studies that randomize groups of children; following the forking paths, subsetting, p-hacking, and data dredging; basing conclusions on tests for significant differences from baseline; equating "no statistically significant difference" with "equally effective"; ignoring intervention study results in favor of observational analyses; using one-sided testing for statistical significance; and stating that effects are clinically significant even though they are not statistically significant. We hope that compiling these errors in one article will serve as the beginning of a checklist to support fidelity in conducting, analyzing, and reporting childhood obesity research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew W Brown
- Department of Applied Health Science, Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington, Bloomington, Indiana
| | - Douglas G Altman
- Centre for Statistics in Medicine, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology, and Musculoskeletal Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Tom Baranowski
- Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Houston, Texas
| | - J Martin Bland
- Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York, UK
| | - John A Dawson
- Department of Nutritional Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas
| | | | - Shima Dowla
- School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama
| | - Kevin R Fontaine
- Department of Health Behavior, School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama
| | - Andrew Gelman
- Department of Statistics and Department of Political Science, Columbia University, New York, New York
| | - Steven B Heymsfield
- Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
| | - Wasantha Jayawardene
- Department of Applied Health Science, Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington, Bloomington, Indiana
| | - Scott W Keith
- Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Division of Biostatistics, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | | | - Eric Loken
- Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut
| | - J Michael Oakes
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
| | - June Stevens
- Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
| | - Diana M Thomas
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, United States Military Academy, West Point, New York
| | - David B Allison
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington, Bloomington, Indiana
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