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25 February 2005
Diet Research Claims Often Misleading 
So-called scientific evidence promoting the use of a myriad of diets is frequently flawed says an article in the journal BMC Medical Research Methodology. The authors suggest that we shouldn't take everything we read at face value, as most research articles reporting weight loss studies fail to indicate crucial patient characteristics that may influence the results. Researcher Cheryl Gibson, from the University of Kansas, found that over 90 percent of diet studies did not adequately and comprehensively describe their subjects, making them almost impossible to interpret accurately. The researchers analysed over 200 articles reporting studies of the effects of diet restriction, diet restriction and exercise, or exercise only, on weight loss; as well as research studies on body composition, fat distribution, metabolism and aerobic fitness. Gibson and her co-researchers focused on how the articles reported subject characteristics, using the Consolidation of the Standard of Reporting Trials Characteristics (CONSORT) as a guide. The CONSORT statement is a list of 21 elements recommended as essential for a study to be considered valid. The characteristics the researchers chose to concentrate on were age, gender, general health, medication use, ethnicity and postmenopausal status. It has long been recognized that all of these characteristics affect weight and can alter the weight loss effects of diet and exercise. Their results show that medication use was the least indicated of the characteristics, as 92 percent of the articles missed it out. The subject's health status was ignored by 34 percent of the studies. Ethnicity was not indicated in 86 percent of the studies, and the subject's age was not reported in 11 percent of the studies. 8 percent of the studies failed to report the postmenopausal status of their participants, and 4 percent did not indicate gender. "We found major shortcomings in the reporting of subject characteristics" said the researchers. "Many studies did not report variables that may explain some of the variance in outcomes... and reveal poor adherence to published standards of reporting". Consumers bewildered by the claims and counter-claims of different diet plans should be aware that inadequate reporting can lead to biased results being accepted as valid. The quality of reporting for weight loss studies has to improve if we are ever to understand obesity, the researchers concluded.
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