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Educate your patients on the importance of 3-A-Day of Dairy: Here's
a great
tool (PDF: 618k) to show families how to get their 3-A-Day of Dairy
every day for stronger bones.
Developed in conjunction with The American Academy of Family
Physicians, The American Academy of Pediatrics, The American Dietetic
Association, and The National Medical Association.
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Dairy Council Digest Archives
Nutrition Research: What Can Studies Tell Us?
Discrepancies Between Observational and Randomized Controlled Trials: Dietary Assessment
Discrepancies in diet-disease relationships between observational studies and experimental investigations such as RCTs are due in large part to the weaknesses of methods available to assess dietary intake in observational studies (6a). In RCTs, nutrient or food intake can be measured with a relatively high degree of accuracy because intake is controlled and nutrient composition of menus can be verified by chemical analysis, as was done in the DASH trial (6a). In contrast, self-reported intakes by food records, 24-hour dietary recall, and food frequency questionnaires used in observational studies are susceptible to inaccuracies and biases (7,28-33). These include errors attributed to memory gaps, inability to judge portion sizes, and over- and under-reporting of food intake.
Although currently no dietary assessment method is free of measurement error (2,28), the methods differ in their strengths and limitations (7,28,33). Methods such as 24-hour dietary recall rely heavily on subjects' memory and their ability to accurately characterize food intake (7,33). Food records (i.e., foods and amounts are recorded at the time they are eaten) do not rely on memory, but require individuals to be highly motivated and literate, which can introduce bias toward including educated persons (15,29). Also, food records may need to be kept for a sufficient length of time to accurately indicate intake (34). A number of factors including day-to-day variability in dietary intake, subjects' compliance, and skills of the interviewer can influence the reliability of methods used to assess dietary intake (28). Also, variations in food composition and incomplete nutrient databases can introduce errors when converting foods into nutrients (28). In addition, the bioavailability of nutrients and the potential for nutrient interactions can make it difficult to establish diet-disease relationships in observational studies (8,17,35,36).
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