Conflict of Interest Disclosure in a Top-Tier Portuguese Medical Journal.

Abstract

Scientific medical publications are considered to be a source of unbiased and independent information. Authors are requiredto disclose relationships with the pharmaceutical industry for transparency purposes. The aim of this work was to assess conflictof interest disclosure in a Portuguese top-tier medical journal by comparing authors' self-reported conflicts of interest with paymentslisted in the official database of Portuguese Ministry of Health. All articles published in the Portuguese Journal of Cardiology from December 2015 to May 2016 were reviewed.Articles based on clinical images, with authors affiliated to foreign institutions, editorials, letters to the editor, or submitted beforeJanuary 1st 2015 were excluded. Authors were categorized on concordance between self-reported disclosures and payments listed inthe database. Authors who authored multiple articles were counted as new authors, since each paper offered a new opportunity forfinancial disclosure. Of the 155 authors surveyed, 82 (53%) were in perfect concordance with the sunshine database, while 73 authors (47%) hadone or more undisclosed payments. Undisclosed payments totaled over € 210 000. Four (17%) articles mentioned a conflict of interest,24 articles (96%) had at least one author with undisclosed payments. None of the payments listed in the database was acknowledged in self-reported conflicts of interest. This might indicatethat authors do not consider their financial relationships with the industry to be relevant. The lack of concordance between self-reported conflicts of interest and payments found in the database raises concernsabout incomplete disclosure.