Underreporting of conflicts of interest still occurs in the field of gastroenterology when it comes to clinical practice guidelines, with as much as 19% of European and U.S. guidelines providing inaccurate COI statements or none at all, according to new research presented at the 2023 annual meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology.
Researchers, led by Laith Numan, MD, MS, a gastroenterology fellow at Saint Louis University, reviewed the websites of nine GI societies in the United States and Europe for all published guidelines that used the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations) methodology from 2013 to Oct. 1, 2022 (abstract P1237). They categorized the guidelines authors’ COIs into three groups: “research related payments,” “direct payments” or “mixed.”
Of the 197 guidelines reviewed, 19%, or 38 guidelines, did not report COIs or provided what the researchers described as a “vague general statement” regarding COIs. Within the 159 remaining guidelines, authors reported a total of 2,216 COIs, with 65% of these coming from U.S. guidelines.