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Diet and serum cholesterol: do zero correlations negate the relationship?

D R Jacobs, J T Anderson, H Blackburn

American Journal of Epidemiology

|July 1, 1979

Summary

Uncontrolled conditions in epidemiologic studies can mask diet-serum cholesterol links. Even with a true relationship, cross-sectional studies may show no correlation due to confounding variables.

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Area of Science:

Epidemiology
Nutritional Science
Biostatistics

Background:

Investigating the diet-serum cholesterol relationship is crucial for public health.
Epidemiologic studies often face challenges due to uncontrolled environmental and lifestyle factors.
Confounding variables can significantly impact the observed association between diet and health outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

To demonstrate how confounding can obscure the true relationship between diet and serum cholesterol.
To evaluate the suitability of cross-sectional study designs for examining diet-serum cholesterol associations.

Main Methods:

Utilized a mathematical model to simulate data under conditions of high variance.
Analyzed empirical data to support the theoretical findings.
Assessed the expected correlation coefficients from cross-sectional data.

Main Results:

High variances in confounding factors can lead to near-zero correlation coefficients.
Even when a causal relationship exists, it may not be detected in cross-sectional studies.
The presence of uncontrolled variables significantly undermines the validity of observed associations.

Conclusions:

Cross-sectional study designs are inadequate for reliably investigating the diet-serum cholesterol relationship.
The potential for confounding necessitates more robust study designs in nutritional epidemiology.
Future research should consider designs that better control for extraneous variables to accurately assess dietary impacts on serum cholesterol.

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