[Framing of childhood obesity in Spanish lay press]

OBJECTIVE

To explore the frame, individual or collective, of childhood obesity in the main Spanish lay media.

METHOD

Analysis of a convenience sample of 132 publications regarding childhood obesity (August 2016-September 2018). Descriptive analysis about approach, measures and causes of obesity and food industry influence in the development of the publication.

RESULTS

47% of the publications presented an individual approach. 54% included eating and physical activity as cause. 29% of the measures propose a healthy environment and 27% individual recommendations. Individual frame was present in 77% of the news influenced by the industry.

CONCLUSION

Publications on childhood obesity of the main Spanish lay press reveal a predominance of the individual approach to the problem. This majority perception may condition the development and implementation of public health policies or interventions.

[Food industry funding and epidemiologic research in public health nutrition]

The interests of the food industry to fund nutrition and health research are not limited to promoting scientific advances. Recently, several systematic reviews conducted about the effect of sugar-sweetened beverages and health outcomes have shown some biased conclusions in studies that acknowledge industry sponsorship. In this context, the Nutrition Working Group of the Spanish Epidemiology Society presented a scientific session entitled Food industry and epidemiologic research at its annual meeting. In a round table, four experts in nutrition research presented their points of view about whether the food industry should fund nutrition-related research and the related potential conflicts of interest of the food industry. All the experts agreed not only on defending independence in nutritional epidemiology regarding the design, interpretation and conclusion of their studies but also on the crucial need for guaranteed scientific rigor, scientific quality of the results and measures to protect studies against potential biases related to the conflicts of interest of funding by the food industry. Drs Pérez-Farinós and Romaguera believe that the most effective way to prevent conflicts of interest would be not to allow the food industry to fund nutrition research; Drs Marcos and Martínez-González suggested the need to establish mechanisms and strategies to prevent the potential influences of the food industry in selecting researchers or institutional sponsorship and in the analysis and results of the studies, to ensure maximum independence for researchers, as well as their professional ethics.

[A critical assessment of the relation between the food industry and health research]

OBJECTIVE

To describe the influence of the food industry in health research, observing how funding influences health outcomes and the quality of the studies.

METHOD

We performed a systematic review in MEDLINE, Cochrane Library Plus and Scopus using the MESH "Food Industry", "Food-Processing Industry", "Biomedical Research", "Research Support as Topic", and the keywords "Industry Sponsorship" and "Funding Source". The quality was assessed using the PRISMA guidelines.

RESULTS

We revised 1,506 articles and 10 were included; two reviewed the relationship between funding-outcomes and quality-outcomes; six focused on the funding-outcomes relationship; and the other two focused on methodological quality. Six showed that funding from the food industry resulted in more favourable outcomes for their products. No differences in quality were found in relation to the funding source, but those which did not declare their funding had a worse quality.

CONCLUSION

Studies funded by the food industry showed favourable results for their products. However, this fact did not affect the quality of the studies.