School of Public Health features in Top 100 publications for 2019

Two publications from the School of Public Health have featured in Altmetric’s Top 100 list for 2019.

The list highlights research published in 2019 that has generated significant international online attention and discussion – from patents and public policy documents to mainstream media, blogs, Wikipedia, and social media platforms.

Link between soft drinks and mortality

The first publication to appear on the list, at number 21, found links between consumption of soft drinks and increased risk of death. The study, which involved over 450,000 participants from 10 European countries, found that those who drank two or more glasses of soft drinks, including sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened soft drinks per day had a higher risk of mortality from all causes than those who consumed less than one glass per month.

The paper, which was published in JAMA Internal Medicine, was co-authored by researchers across the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, including Dr Jonathan Pearson-Stuttard, Professor Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita, Dr Konstantinos Tsilidis, Alicia Heath, Dr David Muller and Professor Elio Riboli.

Human papillomavirus vaccination programme

The School’s second publication to feature in the list was a systematic review and meta-analysis of human papillomavirus vaccination (HPV) programmes. HPV causes a number of infections and is linked to 99% of cervical cancer cases globally.

The paper, published in the Lancet in August 2019, covered data from 60 million individuals with results showing compelling evidence of the impact of HPV vaccination programmes on infections among girls and women. The research supports WHO recommendations for HPV vaccination among girls to prevent cervical cancer and suggests that the goal of cervical cancer elimination “might be possible if sufficient population-level vaccination coverage can be reached.”

Against statistical significance

Staff from the School of Public Health also appear on the number two listed publication, a comment piece published in Nature calling for an end of statistical significance. The article suggests that P values are not a satisfactory method “to decide whether a result refutes or supports a scientific hypothesis.”

Whilst not listed as authors, several members of staff from the School of Public Health are among the 854 signatories including Professor Deborah Ashby, Dr Suzie Cro, Dr Nathan Green, Dr Jessica Laine and Hilary Watt.

The full Top 100 list can be seen on the Altmetric site.