San Francisco VA Medical Center, San Francisco, California 94121, USA.
Acad Med. 2010 Jan;85(1):74-9. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0b013e3181c51d3f.
To directly examine the relationship between commercial support of continuing medical education (CME) and perceived bias in the content of these activities.
Cross-sectional study of 213 accredited live educational programs organized by a university provider of CME from 2005 to 2007. A standard question from course evaluations was used to determine the degree to which attendees believed commercial bias was present. Binomial regression models were used to determine the association between course features that may introduce commercial bias and the extent of perceived bias at those CME activities.
Mean response rate for attendee evaluations was 56% (SD 15%). Commercial support covered 20%-49% of costs for 45 (21%) educational activities, and > or = 50% of costs for 46 activities (22%). Few course participants perceived commercial bias, with a median of 97% (interquartile range 95%-99%) of respondents stating that the activity they attended was free of commercial bias. There was no association between extent of commercial support and the degree of perceived bias in CME activities. Similarly, perceived bias did not vary for 11 of 12 event characteristics evaluated as potential sources of commercial bias, or by score on a risk index designed to prospectively assess risk of commercial bias.
Rates of perceived bias were low for the vast majority of CME activities in the sample and did not differ by the degree of industry support or other event characteristics. Further study is needed to determine whether commercial influence persisted in more subtle forms that were difficult for participants to detect.
直接考察继续医学教育（CME）商业赞助与这些活动内容中感知偏差之间的关系。
对 2005 年至 2007 年期间由 CME 大学提供商组织的 213 个经过认证的现场教育项目进行横断面研究。使用课程评估中的一个标准问题来确定参与者认为商业偏见存在的程度。使用二项式回归模型来确定可能引入商业偏见的课程特征与这些 CME 活动中感知偏见的程度之间的关联。
参与者评估的平均回复率为 56%（标准差 15%）。商业支持覆盖了 20%-49%成本的有 45 个（21%）教育活动，而 > = 50%成本的有 46 个活动（22%）。很少有课程参与者感知到商业偏见，中位数为 97%（四分位距 95%-99%）的受访者表示他们参加的活动没有商业偏见。CME 活动中商业支持的程度与感知偏差的程度之间没有关联。同样，在评估为商业偏见潜在来源的 12 个事件特征中的 11 个中，或者在设计用于前瞻性评估商业偏见风险的风险指数得分上，感知偏差没有差异。
在样本中，绝大多数 CME 活动的感知偏差率都很低，并且与行业支持程度或其他事件特征没有差异。需要进一步研究以确定商业影响是否以参与者难以察觉的更微妙形式持续存在。
