Source: CORNELL UNIVERSITY submitted to NRP
DIET AND DISEASE RELATIONSHIPS
Sponsoring Institution
State Agricultural Experiment Station
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
STATE
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0196510
Grant No.
(N/A)
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Jul 1, 2003
Project End Date
Dec 31, 2003
Grant Year
(N/A)
Program Code
[(N/A)]- (N/A)
Recipient Organization
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
(N/A)
ITHACA,NY 14853
Performing Department
NUTRITIONAL SCIENCES
Non Technical Summary
The project addresses the geographical variation in disease ocurrence as it relates to differences in dietary factors and nutritional biomarkers. The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between dietary factors and various diseases.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
70260991170100%
Knowledge Area
702 - Requirements and Function of Nutrients and Other Food Components;

Subject Of Investigation
6099 - People and communities, general/other;

Field Of Science
1170 - Epidemiology;
Goals / Objectives
The objective of the research effort is to study the relationship between diet and disease in rural Chinese populations. The main focus of the investigation is on emerging "diseases of affluence" such as cancer and heart disease. The study investigates the association of a comprehensive range of dietary indicators and various chronic diseases.
Project Methods
The study consists of a series of ecologic surveys in 69 rural Chinese counties and 10 areas in Taiwan. This data is combined with retrospective mortality surveys for two different time periods. These data are compiled and merged for statistical analyses of the diet-disease relationships of interest.

Progress 01/01/03 to 12/31/03

Outputs
Publication of the monograph associated with the data from the second series of surveys in the People's Republic of China and Taiwan (China Project II) is being finalized by Richard Peto and colleagues at Oxford. Both the 1989 data (China Project II) and 1983 data (China Project I) are now available on the internet, in both English and Chinese, and can be accessed at http://www.ctsu.ox.ac.uk/projects/cecology1989/. The surveys include the comprehensive 1986-88 mortality surveys, 1989 ecologic survey and 1993 reliability survey conducted in 69 mostly rural counties in the PRC and 16 widely dispersed areas in Taiwan. The monograph will include methodological details and commentaries from each of the principal investigators and will be a joint publication by the World Health Organization, World Bank and Harvard University Press, as part of the prestigious 'World Health Series' of publications. We have completed a video summary/description of the project which is to be launched on the Cornell CyberTower website in February 2004. As part of our wider plans to disseminate the impacts of the research study we are planning to videotape and disseminate (via DVD and internet) a faculty debate on the impacts of dietary changes in China on the health of the population, economy and environment. This debate involving faculty members at Cornell University and in China is scheduled for February/March 2004.

Impacts
The results of the study have wide implications for nutritional recommendations and dietary guidelines. The impacts also include generation of a debate and dialogue on controversial issues both within and beyond the scientific community.

Publications

  • No publications reported this period