Discussion board instructions:
Read the Boffetta et al (2010) article of the relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption and reduced cancer risk.
Examine the confidence intervals reported in the abstract (note that a hazard ratio (HR) of 1 means no change in risk) and comment on their sizes. Are they statistically significant?
How does the size of the samples affect your opinion of the conclusions reached?
Respond to my classmate's response below using the instructions provided above, also indicate whether you agree/disagree with classmate's response
Classmate Reynolds' response:
A hazard ratio (HR) is a comparison between the probability of events in a treatment group, compared to the probability of events in a control group. It is frequently used in clinical trials when a new drug is being used and compared to a placebo or standard treatment. The article we had to read this week looked at the total intake of fruits and vegetables and cancer risk in women and men. There were 142,605 men and 335,873 women in this study. The researchers stratified by alcohol consumption and smoking.
The researchers used a 95% CI and they found that the relationship between cancer risk and intake of fruits and vegetables were very similar and with an HR of close to 1. An HR of close to 1 indicates that there is no different between the groups in cancer risk.
The P-values were also very small which indicates that there is no statistical significance. Overall the researchers concluded that there was no or very little association between intake of total fruits and vegetables and cancer risk. I agree with their conclusion and the results of this article do not provide any evidence that eating more vegetables or fruit would decrease ones chances of getting cancer
1. Boffetta, Paolo, et al. "Fruit and vegetable intake and overall cancer risk in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)." Journal of the National Cancer Institute 102.8 (2010): 529-537.
2. Hazard Ratio: Definition, Examples. Statistics How To.