Researchers fake AIDS study data

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>

> Researchers fake AIDS study data

>

> By Robert Stacy McCain

> THE WASHINGTON TIMES

> Published December 5, 2003

>

> ----------

>

> Three Maryland researchers have admitted fabricating interviews with

> teenagers for a study on AIDS prevention that received more than $1

million

> in federal funds.

> Lajuane Woodard, Sheila Blackwell and Khalilah Creek were employed by

> the University of Maryland at Baltimore's department of pediatrics as

> researchers on the study, funded by a grant from the National Institutes

of

> Health (NIH).

> The three admitted they made up interviews with teenagers, which they

> had claimed took place from May to August 2001, for the study on

preventing

> the transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The fabrication was

> first reported in the journal Research USA.

> The study was designed to evaluate the impact of " safe sex "

counseling

> on black teens in Baltimore housing developments. Congressional staffers

> said the study, titled " Effectiveness of Standard Versus Embellished HIV

> Prevention, " received more than $1 million in NIH funds in 1999.

> " It is terribly troubling that federally funded research on a topic

as

> sensitive and important as HIV prevention for children, some as young as

> 13, would be intentionally manipulated, " said Rep. Mark Souder, Indiana

> Republican and chairman of the House subcommittee on criminal justice,

drug

> policy and human resources. " If not caught, the lives of countless

children

> may have been put at risk by ineffective, perhaps dangerous, prevention

> messages developed from this fabricated research. "

> Results of the Baltimore study were published in January in the

> journal Pediatrics by a group of nine researchers led by Ying Wu of West

> Virginia University.

> The study's objective was to determine whether enhancing an existing

> AIDS prevention program called Focus on Kids by adding " parental

> monitoring " would have an effect on the children involved.

> Editors of Pediatrics said yesterday they were investigating the

> reported fabrications.

> The study involved " 817 black youths aged 12 to 16 years, " and found

> that youth whose families participated in the enhanced Focus on Kids

> program showed " significantly lower rates " for a variety of risk

behaviors,

> including sex without condoms and use of cigarettes and alcohol.

> The Focus on Kids program is a widely used " safe sex " curriculum

> advertised by its publisher, ETR Associates, as " proven effective. "

> " We would not comment on this, " said Constance Burr, spokeswoman for

> the National Institute for Mental Health, the NIH division which funded

the

> study. Officials at the Office of Research Integrity had no response to

the

> report.

> In the past year, House Republicans have repeatedly criticized NIH

> funding of sex research projects, including a $147,000 grant to a

> Northwestern University professor who paid women to watch pornography

while

> measuring their sexual arousal.

> In July, the House rejected on a 212-210 vote a measure sponsored by

> Rep. Patrick J. Toomey, Pennsylvania Republican, that would have

eliminated

> federal funding for five sex studies.

> But investigation of federally funded sex research has come under

fire

> by critics, including Rep. Henry A. Waxman, California Democrat. In

> October, responding to a list of research grants questioned by some House

> Republicans, Mr. Waxman wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy

> G. Thompson: " I urge you in the strongest possible terms to denounce this

> scientific McCarthyism. Imposing ideological shackles on this research

> would be a serious public health mistake. "

> More recently, the New England Journal of Medicine denounced

> congressional probes of research grants. Such scrutiny risks turning sex

> research into a " political football, " warned the journal's editor, Dr.

> Jeffrey Drazen.

> " Science should have oversight from Congress but it ought not to be

at

> the level of specific grants, " Dr. Drazen told United Press International.

> But Mr. Souder said the admissions of fabrication in the Baltimore

HIV

> study show the importance of congressional oversight.

> " This scandal underscores the need for oversight of all federal

> programs -- even NIH -- to ensure taxpayer dollars are not misspent and

> science is not manipulated, " the congressman said.

>

http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20031204-113809-8

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