Morton Archer

Effect of a serum cholesterol-lowering diet on composition of depot fat in man.

W ITII the development and greater availability of gas liquid chromatography as an analytical tool, increasing evidence is appearing that various diets are capable of inducing specific changes in the pattern of fatty acids in the depot fat of man.’3 Hirsch et al.4 have developed a syringe technic for the aspiration of subcutaneous adipose tissue and have studied the depot fat composition patterns of normal subjects and patients on special diets. The Diet and Coronary Heart Disease Study Project (The Anti-Coronary Club) of the City of New York Department of Health and its procedures have been described previously [5-9]. The ultimate objective of this project is to determine whether a diet capable of lowering the level of serum cholesterol can favorably influence morbidity and mortality due to coronary heart disease when consumed for a prolonged period by a volunteer study population of middle-aged men. The composition of the Study Project diet is given in Table . It derives 30 to 33 per cent of calories from fat, compared to 40 to 44 per cent present in the “usual American diet.”

Social Factors Affecting Participation in a Study of Diet and Coronary Heart Disease

In a long-term prospective study of the effects of dietary modification on the incidence of coronary heart disease, the characteristics of the subjects were examined to determine whether differences existed between those who remained in the study and those who dropped out. Statistically significant differences were elucidated between these two groups in terms of a cosmopolitan-parochial orientation, some demographic characteristics and how the subjects viewed the study and their role in the research aims. The implications of these findings for future research and public health application of the overall study findings are discussed.

An analysis of coronary-prone behavior patterns of anti-coronary club members

Abstract Recently, evidence has been produced that there is a type of behavior that permits prospective identification of persons prone to develop coronary heart disease (CHD). In order to categorize the behavior patterns of Anti-Coronary Club Members as Type A (coronary-prone) or Type B, the New York City Department of Health mailed the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS) to all participants in the diet-heart study. This questionnaire was designed to measure coronary-prone characteristics automatically according to the Rosenman-Friedman criteria. Completed questionnaires (1010) were forwarded to Dr. C. David Jenkins for scoring. Differences in scores were found primarily on the basis of age. Subjects who developed new CHD cases in the 40–49 yr old group scored significantly higher JAS means than those who had no events. The mean scores of the older group (50–59 yr) with and without new events were not different. According to the Rosenman-Friedman criteria, the active experimental group was more coronary-prone than the control group. Nevertheless, this group developed substantially lower incidence rates of new CHD than the control group. This suggests that the intervention of the Prudent Diet was very effective in lowering the rates for the active experimental group.