Analysis of the MRFIT screenees: a methodological study

Abstract

Purpose. To review the methods used in the many publications on the MRFIT screenees. Method. Medline was searched for articles mentioning MRFIT screenees. The articles were collected, abstracted, and the method section and some of the result section were scrutinized in detail. The statements in different articles regarding methods used and the presentation of results were compared. Result. The analyses of the MRFIT screenees seem to be retrospective studies of mortality and risk factors, where the underlying data base has been far from complete. Similar data are presented in slightly different fashions in several papers published in different scientific journals at about the same time. The control of the quality of underlying data has been uneven and is not discussed at all in most of the papers published. Conclusion. The often-repeated statement that the MRFIT screenees constitute the largest and most exact data base regarding the relation of risk factors to mortality in the healthy male US population has no foundation.