Day 254 - 22 May 96 - Page 32


     
     1        of these groups of women in terms of risk.
     2
     3   Q.   Right.  But that would not mean that there is not any such
     4        connection?
     5
     6   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, they have gone out of their way, really,
     7        to say that have they not?
     8        A.  Yes, indeed.
     9
    10   MS. STEEL:   Right.  Bearing in mind that this is only over a
    11        short time span that would particularly be true?
    12        A.  I think it is.  As we have agreed, this is a problem
    13        with all of these prospective studies, that they are
    14        inevitably held or conducted over a relatively short
    15        timescale.
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have just re-read, I did not mark it the
    18        first time I read it, the very last paragraph of the
    19        article.  The very bottom of page 360, right and top.
    20        A.  Which is, in fact, something which I have said before.
    21
    22   Q.   Yes.
    23
    24   MS. STEEL:   Yes.  They also would not exclude it for the period
    25        later than adolescence between the age of 20 and 30, or
    26        even between the ages of adolescence and 28, because it is
    27        the very first one that comes up.  Would you agree with
    28        that, that the last paragraph on the page could be equally
    29        applicable up to the age of 28?
    30        A.  No, I am sorry, I cannot make that conclusion because
    31        that is not what they say.  In my previous evidence I have
    32        suggested that some studies have put forward the view that
    33        there may well be variations in energy intake at the
    34        developing period of a woman's life which may have an
    35        influence.  By the time you get beyond adolescence, I am
    36        afraid we are sort of finished at that point and it is all
    37        downhill thereafter.
    38
    39   Q.   But all I am putting to you is that where they say that the
    40        aspects of diet during childhood or adolescence cannot be
    41        ruled out on the basis of the results of prospective
    42        studies of adult women, in terms of this study which, at
    43        the very earliest start at the age of 28, and actually that
    44        is the Adventists who were excluded, so the next youngest
    45        group is 34, it cannot rule out the effect of diet up to
    46        the age of 34, basically?
    47        A.  I think, in fairness, the Adventist women were only
    48        excluded from a particular analysis in the study.
    49
    50   Q.   I make the same point from the age of 28 then, you would 
    51        agree with that? 
    52        A.  The other suggestion, though, is that if energy intake 
    53        is important it is more likely to be important at a time
    54        when the body is developing, and so on, rather than, as
    55        they say, that there is no evidence in adult life.  Now, as
    56        I have already said to you, I am afraid once we are beyond
    57        adolescence, you know, that is the way we are, and we know
    58        from the influence of other factors on abnormalities of
    59        growth, and so on, that the body is at its most susceptible
    60        when it is young and developing rather than when it is

Prev Next Index