Frequency of policy recommendations in epidemiologic publications

Objectives, The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency and ch aracter of policy sta statements in epidemiologic reports. Methods, The first author followed a standardized protocol and reviewed a r andom sample of articles selected from the American Journal of Epidemiology ., Annals of Epidemiology;and , and Epidemiology The:second author reviewed all articles with policy statements and a 10% sample without such statemen ts. Results. Overall, 23.8% of the articles contained policy statements, Annals of Epidemiology and the American Journal of Epidemiology had similar frequ encies of articles with policy statements (30% and 26.7%, respectively), wh ile Epidemiology evidenced the lowest frequency (8.3%). The majority of pol icy statements (55%) pertained to public health practice; 27.5% involved cl inical practice, and the remainder (17.5%) focused on corporate policies, r egulatory actions, or undefined arenas. The frequency of policy statements differed according to first author's affiliation, type of publication, area of research, research design, and study population. Conclusions. Although a minority of publications included policy statements , the inclusion of a statement. seemed to be influenced by specific study c haracteristics.