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
