Studies about coffee, chocolate, and marijuana make for great headlines, but they may also be distracting us from making real medical progress. In a recent perspective piece for Medscape, John Mandrola, MD, says that medical journalism’s worship of page views and clickbait often promotes observational nonsense that drowns out good science.
Examples abound, according to Dr Mandrola. A prominent medical journal recently published two observational trials on coffee intake, both showing that coffee is associated with lower mortality and better cardiovascular outcomes. But the literature is already brimming with similar findings, Dr Mandrola points out. There are even randomized controlled trials in patients with advanced heart disease that show that caffeine is safe.
There are several ways we might limit wasteful research, Dr Mandrola suggests. Journals could become more restrictive in their acceptance of weak studies and more transparent about their weaknesses. Publications and institutions might consider toning down press releases. And, he says, clinicians and other readers need to be savvier, educating themselves about things such as common biases, confounding factors, and reverse causation.
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