Does spin happen in skincare-related scientific papers?

I read a lot of scientific papers – mainly clinical trials of skin treatments.

The more I read, the more I notice that the conclusions drawn by the authors don’t always seem to match up with what the results of the trial actually show. In other words, there seems to be some ‘spin’ going on. Spin is defined as ‘reporting that distorts the interpretation of results.’ That’s why just reading the abstract and/or conclusion of a scientific paper can be very misleading.

Unfortunately, this is what many people do and leads to lots of incorrect headlines in beauty publications online and in the media, which then leads to people purchasing products because they believe the ‘science’ and end up disappointed.

A group of dermatologists actually performed a systematic review of placebo-controlled double-blind clinical trials of the topical treatment of photoaged skin to identify if spin was used and what kind (Motosko et al, JAAD 2018). They searched the literature and only uncovered 20 relatively ‘high quality’ trials (out of a possible 951 that fit the initial search criteria). What they found was quite extraordinary – and very worrying.

All the studies had conclusions that were not in keeping with what the results actually showed – either due to inappropriate statistical analysis or inappropriate interpretation of results. The authors uncovered lots of different, specific ways that this happened in each individual paper. Importantly, all the articles reviewed concluded that the topical application of the test products showed promise in the treatment of photoaged skin. At least 16 out of the 20 papers where sponsored by the manufacturer of the test product. Three of the papers were about OTC retinol and all of them were trials of cosmetic skin care products – not medicines or prescription topical treatments.

What’s the message here for you, the consumer? Don’t trust Big Skincare – even if the advertisement quotes a published scientific paper. These are ‘marketing’ clinical trials – they are intended to increase sales, not to provide useful scientific information.