Abstract
Background
The Framingham Heart Study (henceforth Framingham) is among the gold standards for
epidemiological research. Being a prospective cohort study of 5,000+ men and women,
it provided early findings about the causes of coronary heart disease (CHD), following
a cohort over the course of 24 years. After US government funding ended, the tobacco
industry funded Council for Tobacco Research (CTR) provided continued funding for
analyses related to smoking.
Objective
This study sought to understand the tobacco industry's motivation and activities in
funding Framingham.
Study Design and Setting
We analyzed previously undisclosed tobacco industry documents, conducting iterative
searches of the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library (http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/), and assembled a historical case study.
Results
CTR funded Framingham to obtain full access to Framingham data. CTR planned for long-time
industry consultant Carl Seltzer to reanalyze them to suggest that tobacco-related
morbidity and mortality primarily resulted from “constitutional” factors, such as
age or ethnicity. Once data were obtained, CTR terminated funding for the Framingham
principal investigator, who disagreed with Seltzer. Seltzer's critical analyses of
subsequently published work by the Framingham team created confusion about the association
between CHD and cigarette smoking.
Conclusion
Researchers accepting tobacco industry funding risk losing control of data, analysis,
and publication.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
January 30,
2010
Identification
Copyright
© 2010 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
