Dataset Information

Determinants of citation in the literature on diesel exhaust exposure and lung cancer: a citation analysis.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVES:Epidemiological research on the association between diesel exhaust exposure and lung cancer risk has some methodological challenges that give rise to different conclusions and intense debates. This raises the question about the role of selective citation and of citation bias in particular. Our aim was to investigate the occurrence and prevalence of selective citation in this field. DESIGN:Citation analysis. SETTING:Web of Science Core Collection. PARTICIPANTS:We identified 96 publications in this network, with 4317 potential citations. For each publication, we extracted characteristics such as study conclusion and funding source. Some of these characteristics are related to the study content: study design, sample size, method of diesel exposure assessment, type of diesel technology under investigation, and whether smoking had been adjusted for. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES:Whether a citation occurs or not, measured and analysed according to the preregistered protocol. Exploratively we analysed the association between funding source and study conclusion. RESULTS:Methodological content of a study was clearly related to citation, studies using more sophisticated methods were more likely to be cited. There was some evidence for citation bias: supportive publications had a higher chance of being cited than non-supportive ones, but after adjustment for study quality, this effect decreased substantially (adjusted OR 1.3, 95%?CI 1.0 to 1.7). Explorative analyses indicated that three quarters of non-profit funded publications had a supportive study conclusion against only one quarter of the industry-funded publications. CONCLUSIONS:There is evidence for selective citation within this field, but the evidence for citation bias was weak. It seems that factors related to the methodology had more impact on citation than the conclusion of a study. Interestingly, publications that were funded by industry were more skeptical about a causal relationship between diesel exhaust and lung cancer compared to non-profit-funded publications.

SUBMITTER: Duyx B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7542959 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Determinants of citation in the literature on diesel exhaust exposure and lung cancer: a citation analysis.

Duyx Bram B Urlings Miriam J E MJE Swaen Gerard M H GMH Bouter Lex M LM Zeegers Maurice P MP

BMJ open 20201007 10

<h4>Objectives</h4>Epidemiological research on the association between diesel exhaust exposure and lung cancer risk has some methodological challenges that give rise to different conclusions and intense debates. This raises the question about the role of selective citation and of citation bias in particular. Our aim was to investigate the occurrence and prevalence of selective citation in this field.<h4>Design</h4>Citation analysis.<h4>Setting</h4>Web of Science Core Collection.<h4>Participants< ...[more]

PMID: 33033008

Similar Datasets

Project description:BackgroundMost studies of the association between diesel exhaust exposure and lung cancer suggest a modest, but consistent, increased risk. However, to our knowledge, no study to date has had quantitative data on historical diesel exposure coupled with adequate sample size to evaluate the exposure-response relationship between diesel exhaust and lung cancer. Our purpose was to evaluate the relationship between quantitative estimates of exposure to diesel exhaust and lung cancer mortality after adjustment for smoking and other potential confounders.MethodsWe conducted a nested case-control study in a cohort of 12?315 workers in eight non-metal mining facilities, which included 198 lung cancer deaths and 562 incidence density-sampled control subjects. For each case subject, we selected up to four control subjects, individually matched on mining facility, sex, race/ethnicity, and birth year (within 5 years), from all workers who were alive before the day the case subject died. We estimated diesel exhaust exposure, represented by respirable elemental carbon (REC), by job and year, for each subject, based on an extensive retrospective exposure assessment at each mining facility. We conducted both categorical and continuous regression analyses adjusted for cigarette smoking and other potential confounding variables (eg, history of employment in high-risk occupations for lung cancer and a history of respiratory disease) to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Analyses were both unlagged and lagged to exclude recent exposure such as that occurring in the 15 years directly before the date of death (case subjects)/reference date (control subjects). All statistical tests were two-sided.ResultsWe observed statistically significant increasing trends in lung cancer risk with increasing cumulative REC and average REC intensity. Cumulative REC, lagged 15 years, yielded a statistically significant positive gradient in lung cancer risk overall (P (trend) = .001); among heavily exposed workers (ie, above the median of the top quartile [REC ? 1005 ?g/m(3)-y]), risk was approximately three times greater (OR = 3.20, 95% CI = 1.33 to 7.69) than that among workers in the lowest quartile of exposure. Among never smokers, odd ratios were 1.0, 1.47 (95% CI = 0.29 to 7.50), and 7.30 (95% CI = 1.46 to 36.57) for workers with 15-year lagged cumulative REC tertiles of less than 8, 8 to less than 304, and 304 ?g/m(3)-y or more, respectively. We also observed an interaction between smoking and 15-year lagged cumulative REC (P (interaction) = .086) such that the effect of each of these exposures was attenuated in the presence of high levels of the other.ConclusionOur findings provide further evidence that diesel exhaust exposure may cause lung cancer in humans and may represent a potential public health burden.

Dataset Information

Determinants of citation in the literature on diesel exhaust exposure and lung cancer: a citation analysis.

Publications

Determinants of citation in the literature on diesel exhaust exposure and lung cancer: a citation analysis.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure