September Summary

I chose this journal article because of the importance of understanding the nutrient needs of the general population, who are also our clients. With the thoughts that vitamin D deficiency is increasing in Americans plus the call for an increase of recommendations, I felt this article could provide more insight into what is happening to the intake of vitamin D. I also thought this study was unique because of its long-term data collection.

Question 1

Overall, the majority seemed to agree that some of the variables changed during the study could possibly have an impact on the end results. Michela suggested that the change in technology may be confusing for people who do not understand the electronic system. I personally agree with Meg who still did not know what to think about the effect on the results, even after pointing out that a comparability study was done to prove validity of the change from written to electronic. Jamie believed that the researchers should have kept the data collection the same throughout the study even with technology change. I thought Kevin’s opinion was very interesting, that the drawbacks were not caused by the length of the study, but instead by the choices the researchers made to change factors along the way. Though, Tiffany thought that changes may need to be made during a long-term study to keep it current. Although most individuals thought that changing the age requirements and data intake collection method could have had an impact on the results, they also mostly agreed that increasing sample size to account for the population increase would not affect the outcome.

Question 2

I thought this question would be very interesting to ask in order to hear others opinions on why vitamin D intake could have decreased, since the study did not mention much on the subject. Most people agreed with Stephanie who spoke about the lifestyle changes of Americans from making home-cooked nutrient-dense meals to replacing them with less nutritious fast food. I liked Michela’s thought that the popularity of the subject in the media could have an influence on the public’s awareness of the need for intake of vitamin D. Amanda brought up a great point that that the Minneapolis-St. Paul area may not be able to be generalized to the entire American population. But, it was a unique opportunity to hear from Meg who is actually from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and personally does not feel that the food intake is much different from the rest of the Midwest. Meg also stated that the Midwest food consumption habits could easily be different than the coasts, which have easier access to seafood. Jordan spoke more about the low-fat trends over the past few decades resulting in lower consumption of foods that are good sources of vitamin D and Kevin thinks unhealthier drinks may have replaced the intake of milk as a source of vitamin D. Ali also brought up an interesting point that vitamin D deficiency may also be a result of less sun exposure due to the American lifestyle that keeps them indoors.

Question 3

The consensus to this question was that this extensive 24-hour recall collection method would improve the results, but also that it could be too costly and time consuming for some studies. Tiffany thinks although this data collection method is a good idea for studies using the 24-hour recall method, that a different data collection method could have made this study more accurate. Both Kevin and Meg agreed with Tiffany, and believed that a food frequency questionnaire would have been more appropriate given the nature of this study. I agree that it would be very interesting to see just how different this extensive method is from a typical 24-hour recall in a study comparing the two. Jamie also pointed out that people may still over or underreport due to pressure of interview process.