Errors Trigger Retraction Of Study On Mediterranean Diet's Heart Benefits - NPR

[Melanie]

Errors Trigger Retraction Of The Study On Mediterranean Diet's Heart Benefits

But the New England Journal of Medicine retracted the paper Wednesday because of problems in the way the study was carried out.

A retraction is a last resort for medical and scientific journals, a sign to readers that the results are no longer trustworthy and are beyond correcting. Although retractions are relatively rare — taking down fewer than 1 in 1,000 published articles — the rate is increasing.

The authors of the NEJM paper are replacing the 2013 paper with a corrected version that shows people following the diet had a similarly reduced level of heart attacks and strokes. The major change is softer language about the conclusions.

The revised paper says only that people eating the Mediterranean diet had fewer strokes and heart attacks, not, as the original paper claimed, that the diet was the direct cause of those health benefits.

I just thought I would post this as it is an example of doing the right thing when it is discovered there was a wrong conclusion stated in research.