This story lacks appropriate context. There has been an enormous amount of research in the past decade on the mechanisms behind surgery-induced diabetes remission. The story implies that a major breakthrough has been made, when in fact many prior research studies have provided far more evidence than this one.
The story failed to report on the cost of treatment, how likely it is that diabetes resolves, or how commonly diabetes reoccurs as a chronic condition requiring management.
It simply didn’t give readers sufficient information to evaluation the treatment reported on.
Type II diabetes is a common chronic illness and in evaluating treatments, readers need more complete information about the chances for benefit, harm and costs to determine value in a particular treatment.
Although there was an acknowledgment that it simply wasn’t possible to offer gastric bypass surgery to everyone with type II diabetes, there was no discussion about the costs of gastric bypass surgery.
The story reported on the impact of gastric bypass surgery on diabetes in a very small group of patients (10) in which all of them experienced improvement in their diabetes. However – there are numerous larger studies which have been conducted that have examined the impact of this surgery on diabetes. While the impact on diabetes is good, rather than all patients demonstrating benefit, broader experience indicates that about 80% of those with type Ii diabetes will see improvement.
The story also implies that there could be some benefit to readers of knowing that branch chain amino acids are reduced by surgery. There is no quantifiable benefit to this piece of the puzzle.
While the story did mention some of the common side effects that occur following gastric bypass surgery, it actually neglected to mention some of the serious side effects of surgery.
In addition, since the story was about the impact of gastric bypass surgery on diabetes, it also should have mentioned that resolution of diabetes is not guaranteed to be permanent and reoccurs in as many as 30 out of 100 people who had improvement.
The story reported on a preliminary study to compare amino acid profiles in individuals with type II diabetes losing following gastric bypass surgery or solely through caloric restriction. But it never adequately explained the significance of changing amino acid levels – bouncing from a statement in one sentence that these amino acids are associated with insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease, to a news release-lifted statement in the next sentence that we don’t understand how the amino acids influence diabetes risk. Since the story – in its subhead and body copy – focused so much on the change in amino acids, it should have emphasized that there is no quantifiable benefit to this piece of the puzzle.
And the story could have done a better job describing the much broader substantive research that has been done on this same topic.
The story does not engage in overt disease mongering.
In addition to two authors of the study reported on, a spokesperson from the American Diabetes Association commented on the impact of gastric bypass on type II diabetes.
The story briefly mentioned the difference in short term improvement in diabetes in those having gastric bypass and those losing weight through caloric restriction. But it really didn’t quantify the benefits and harms of the two alternative approaches.
It’s clear that gastric bypass is a readily available surgical procedure.
Gastric bypass is not novel and the story – in reporting that 200,000 people have it each year – did not portray it as such.
Turning improved understanding about branched chain amino acids impacting diabetes into an effective treatment for diabetes is at this time hypothetical and was discussed as having potential for use.
The story indicated that it drew some of its information from a news release. But it also included interviews with one of the researchers and with an American Diabetes Association official. So it did not appear to rely solely on a news release.
Systematic, Criteria-Driven
Monday at #ADA2021, an infectious disease epidemiologist, a journalist, and a researcher shared perspectives on communication of risk in the era of COVID-19: http://ow.ly/ROfR30rMeE7 @AstleyCM @garyschwitzer @berthahidalgo @ADA_DiabetesPro
Shoutouts to @susan_bewley @drkevinknopf @MichaelBaum11 in this call for more than fawning coverage from press releases for these kinds of stories.
Also, linked history inside goes back 5 years just on Grail apparently trying to become Holy Grail. https://twitter.com/garyschwitzer/status/1408849696416841731
Comments
Please note, comments are no longer published through this website. All previously made comments are still archived and available for viewing through select posts.
Our Comments Policy
But before leaving a comment, please review these notes about our policy.
You are responsible for any comments you leave on this site.
This site is primarily a forum for discussion about the quality (or lack thereof) in journalism or other media messages (advertising, marketing, public relations, medical journals, etc.) It is not intended to be a forum for definitive discussions about medicine or science.
We will delete comments that include personal attacks, unfounded allegations, unverified claims, product pitches, profanity or any from anyone who does not list a full name and a functioning email address. We will also end any thread of repetitive comments. We don”t give medical advice so we won”t respond to questions asking for it.
We don”t have sufficient staffing to contact each commenter who left such a message. If you have a question about why your comment was edited or removed, you can email us at feedback@healthnewsreview.org.
There has been a recent burst of attention to troubles with many comments left on science and science news/communication websites. Read “Online science comments: trolls, trash and treasure.”
The authors of the Retraction Watch comments policy urge commenters:
We”re also concerned about anonymous comments. We ask that all commenters leave their full name and provide an actual email address in case we feel we need to contact them. We may delete any comment left by someone who does not leave their name and a legitimate email address.
And, as noted, product pitches of any sort – pushing treatments, tests, products, procedures, physicians, medical centers, books, websites – are likely to be deleted. We don”t accept advertising on this site and are not going to give it away free.
The ability to leave comments expires after a certain period of time. So you may find that you’re unable to leave a comment on an article that is more than a few months old.
You might also like