Summary of results for analyses of advice, primary claims from correlational data (causal claims), and human inference from non-human studies (human inference)
| Variables | No | PR with news | No with news | Odds news uptake | Odds ratio (95% CI) | Odds news exaggerated | Odds ratio (95% CI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advice: | |||||||
| PR not exaggerated | 128 | 66 | 188 | 1.1 | 1.3 (0.8 to 2.4) | 0.2 | 6.5 (3.5 to 12.4) |
| PRs exaggerated | 85 | 50 | 172 | 1.4 | 1.4 | ||
| Total | 213 | 116 | 360 | — | — | — | |
| Causal claims: | |||||||
| PR not exaggerated | 122 | 61 | 169 | 1 | 1.3 (0.6 to 3.0) | 0.2 | 19.7 (7.6 to 51.4) |
| PRs exaggerated | 60 | 34 | 92 | 1.3 | 4.3 | ||
| Total | 182 | 95 | 261 | — | — | — | — |
| Human inference | |||||||
| PR not exaggerated | 67 | 29 | 68 | 0.8 | 1.3 (0.7 to 2.5) | 0.1 | 56.1 (14.9 to 211) |
| PRs exaggerated | 38 | 19 | 47 | 1 | 5.9 | ||
| Total | 105 | 48 | 115 | — | — | — | — |
PR=press release.
The key results are that odds ratios for the dependence of news uptake on PR exaggeration are indistinguishable from 1, whereas odds ratios for the dependence of news exaggeration on PR exaggeration are much larger and clearly distinguished from 1. See the results section and figures 2 and 3 for further information, including percentages and 95% confidence intervals.