Commercial involvement tracked study quality, but not average insomnia scores
An analysis of digital insomnia therapy trials linked greater sponsorship-bias risk to lower methodological quality. It found no correlation with average insomnia severity scores in treatment or control groups.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
Greater sponsorship-bias risk was associated with lower study quality and open-access publication, but it was not correlated with average insomnia symptom scores. The analysis therefore identified a relationship with research methods rather than clear evidence of more favorable symptom outcomes. Its results do not establish that commercial involvement caused weaker methods or altered treatment effects.
The trial sample came from a particular guideline review. The abstract reports correlations with group mean scores, but gives no association estimate connecting sponsorship risk to the treatment-versus-control effect.
What researchers found
Mean Insomnia Severity Index scores
Compared across sponsorship-risk levels in treatment and control groups immediately after treatment; a correlation estimate is not reported.
What sponsorship risk represented
Researchers rated commercial involvement, ranging from no funding to all authors being affiliated with the company developing the therapy. This was a measure of potential sponsorship bias, rather than proof that particular results were biased.
Scores and treatment effects differ
The Insomnia Severity Index is a symptom questionnaire. Average scores within treatment and control groups differ from the treatment advantage between those groups. The reported null correlations should therefore be interpreted at the level actually analyzed.
The original publication
Industry sponsorship bias in randomized controlled trials of digital cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia: a meta-research study based on the 2023 Brazilian guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of insomnia in adults.
Kakazu VA, Assis M, Bacelar A et al.
Front Neurol · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 40765616
- Record checked
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