Impact of 'spin' on medical decision-making among healthcare professionals and other health-related decision makers: a systematic review protocol.

Abstract

'Spin' refers to reporting practices that distort the interpretation of results and mislead readers' impression of the research findings so that the results are viewed in a more favourable light. This systematic review aims to assess the impact of spin on the impressions and/or interpretation of research findings among healthcare professionals and decision makers involved in health-related decision-making and to evaluate interventions/strategies designed to reduce the influence of spin. This systematic review will be conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. MEDLINE (via Ovid), EMBASE, the Cochrane Library (CENTRAL) and the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) will be searched from their inceptions to 27 January 2026. Randomised controlled trials evaluating the impact of spin on participants' impressions and/or interpretation of research findings, as well as trials assessing the effect of interventions/strategies on the recognition and interpretation of spin, will be considered. Study selection, data extraction and risk of bias (RoB) assessment with the Cochrane RoB2 tool will be performed independently by multiple reviewers. Where sufficient data are available, meta-analyses will be conducted. As this study is based on a review of publicly available literature, ethical approval is not required. The findings will be disseminated through publication in peer-reviewed journals, presentations at international conferences and press releases. INPLASY202620006.