Conflict of interest disclosure slides at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2016 in Rome: are they displayed long enough to assess their content? A cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES: To assess the duration of display of conflict of interest (COI) disclosure slides of presentations at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2016, and to identify factors associated with the duration of display of the disclosure slide. DESIGN: Cross-sectional observational study. OUTCOME MEASURES: Display duration of the COI disclosure slide and display duration per disclosure. RESULTS: Analysis of official video recordings of all oral presentations, viewed on the ESC website. 1673 oral presentations were analysed. In 706 presentations (42.2%), COIs were present on the disclosure slide. The median display duration of the disclosure slide was 2.49 s (minimum value: 0.16 s; IQR 1.47-4.08). In multivariable analysis, time spent on COI disclosures was positively related to the number of COIs (+0.11 s per extra COI), older estimated age of the speaker (+3.92 s for 75-85 years compared with <25 years), verbally commenting on disclosures (up to +8.25 s) and disclosures being of a non-commercial nature (+2.83 s). In addition, speakers from Eastern, Southern and Western Europe, Africa+East Asia and Asia showed their disclosures significantly shorter than the reference group (Northern Europe). CONCLUSION: COI disclosure slides are often displayed too briefly to reasonably assess their content. Several factors appear to influence the duration of display of the COI disclosure slides, but none do so to the degree that the display duration becomes sufficiently long.