Sociologic study of food habits--a review. I. Diversity in diet and scalogram analysis.

Scalogram analysis (Guttman scaling) organizes descriptive data into a form which is meaningful to the nutritionist and the sociologist in the study of the diversity in, and variation of, family food patterns. Scalogram analysis avoids the use of measures that are "description bound" or culturally biased by providing a means of using a higher level of abstraction in studying food habits. Scalogram analysis can be useful, both in planning and in evaluating programs of nutrition education, but until this tool becomes more familiar to nutrition educators and its effectiveness is evaluated in actual situations, it will remain only potentially useful.

An alternate method for calculating an odds ratio.

Methodological problems involved in the use of the standard Woolf-Haldane analysis of epidemiological retrospective studies are examined and an alternate method of analysis is proposed. This alternate method involves a population constructed to match the cases in numerical size and to match the controls in proportion of exposures. This method allows for finer subclassification of the data and provides a meaningful summary estimate of the relative risk. The proposed method is contrasted with the Woolf-Haldane method in the analysis of the relative risk of exposure to sick pet bird versus no pet bird for adult leukemia cases versus controls. Data is from the Tri-State Leukemia Survey. Mathematical considerations involved are contained in the appendices.