Meta-analysis in Research on Nutrition—Reply

摘要

The meta-analysis by Chowdhury et al~(1) illustrates the challenges. As we noted in our Viewpoint, it combined findings from heterogeneous populations with very different diet patterns. In making a case for the relative weights given to the Oxford Vegetarian Study and the Malm? Diet and Cancer Study in the Chowdhury et al meta-analysis, Dr Thornley and colleagues incorrectly reported the sizes of their data sets. There were 20?440 (not 28?098) participants reported for Malm? and 10?802 (not 1100) in Oxford.~(1) As noted by the authors of the Malm? study, the high range of saturated fat intake made their study of limited value for testing the association between saturated fat intake and cardiovascular disease, and saturated fat was not compared with other sources of calories.~(2)