Research of a Tusculum College professor indicating that using a low-fat diet could be more cost effective in preventing breast cancer and ovarian cancer compared to what health insurance companies would otherwise pay to treat the diseases, will be published this month in the “Journal of the American Dietetic Association,” in the January 2011 issue.
The research paper, titled “Cost-effectiveness Analysis of a Low-fat Diet in the Prevention of Breast and Ovarian Cancer” is authored by Dr. Antonio Bos, professor of business administration at Tusculum College.
“This is my most important scholarly work of date,” said Bos. “It has taken a substantial time commitment over the last few years. Needless to say, I am very pleased to have it published in such a prestigious journal, and I am appreciative of the support I received from Tusculum College during this project.”
Bos was the lead author of the research paper, along with co-authors Dr. Barbara Howard of Georgetown University; Dr. Shirley Beresford of the University of Washington; Dr. Nicole Urban of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Dr. Lesley Tinker, also from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Dr. Hugh Waters of the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Angelo Bós, from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, and R. Rowan Chlebowski, from the Harbor/University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center.
The researchers assessed how cost effective the Women’s Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Dietary Modification Trial (WHI-DM) would be if implemented as a public health intervention and under the sponsorship of private health insurers and Medicare.
According to the paper, breast and ovarian cancers were the health outcomes of interest. Two groups of WHI-DM participants formed the target population for this analysis: (1) participants with more than 36.8 percent of energy from fat at baseline and (2) participants at high risk for breast cancer with 32 percent or more of energy from fat at baseline.
The Journal of the American Dietetic Association is the premier source for the practice and science of food, nutrition and dietetics. The monthly, peer-reviewed journal presents original articles prepared by scholars and practitioners and is the most widely read professional publication in the field. The Journal has been ranked 16th in Impact Factor in the Nutrition and Dietetics category of the Journal Citation Reports 2010, published by Thomson Reuters, with an impact factor of 3.128. The impact factor is a measure of the frequency with which the “average article” has been cited in a particular period.