Researchers Admit Error in Study

Copyright 1997 Associated Press
December 17, 1997


BOSTON (AP) -- A study last year suggesting that poor blacks a generation ago ate healthier food than well-off whites turns out to have been wrong.

In a letter in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers said they were thrown off by an error in the computer program used to analyze their data.

Their original report was published in the journal in September 1996. It said that 30 years ago, poor blacks tended to eat more heart-healthy food, such as grains and beans, and less fat. It found that everyone's eating has changed for the better, but the changes have been greater for affluent whites, since their diets were worse to start with.

In their new analysis, Dr. Barry M. Popkin and others from the University of North Carolina said that in reality, there was little difference in the healthiness of whites' and blacks' diets in the 1960s.

They also conclude this time that eating habits have indeed improved for everyone, though not quite as much as their earlier report indicated.


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