Pseudo-Quantified Data

Letter to the Editor Vitamin Substitution Beyond Childhood Requirements and Risks by Dr. oec. troph. Alexandra Jungert, PD Dr. med. Katharina Quack Lötscher, and Prof. Dr. oec. troph. Sabine Rohrmann in issue 1–2/2020

The article begins with the claim that the German National Nutrition Survey II (Nationale Verzehrsstudie, NVS) showed that the German population has a largely sufficient nutrient intake (1). The NVS II cannot show this at all. This study is not a measurement of dietary intake, but rather (to paraphrase from [2]) a collection of over 15 000 non-verified oral reports of memories of perceptions of dietary intake. This collection of anecdotal reports was then improperly pseudo-quantified in order to calculate numerous “data” that is not based on valid measurement. The resulting recommendations are therefore not derived from valid scientific data but are in fact purely fictitious and potentially implausible (3), regardless of the correctness or incorrectness of the recommendations.

DOI: 10.3238/arztebl.2020.0346a

Dipl.-Biol. Christian Selig

Primary Care Physician

Rimpar, [e-mail]

References

1. Jungert A, Quack Lötscher K, Rohrmann S: Vitamin substitution beyond childhood—requirements and risks. Dtsch Arztebl Int 2020; 117: 14–22

2. Archer E, Lavie CJ, Hill JO: The failure to measure dietary intake engendered a fictional discourse on diet-disease relations. Front Nutr 2018; 5: 105

3. Ioannidis PA: Implausible results in human nutrition research. BMJ 2013; 347: f6698