FFTB Child Survey 2007: Must Do Better, Part 1

Professor Patrick Holford and Drew Fobbester are joint authors of the Food for the Brain Child Survey 2007 (pdf). Holfordwatch has made a close study of Holford and Fobbester’s report (see related reading) and it is riddled with errors and examples of poor proof-reading. We have looked at Holfordwatch’s reviews and annotated some parts of the report to reflect some of those criticisms. We hope it is useful to have some of those comments collected together like this as it gives a flavour of how poor the report is.

It is disappointing but not particularly unusual that some media pundits such as Dr Hilary Jones claim to have read the report from cover to cover and yet failed to notice any of the many mistakes. However, we can only echo Holfordwatch’s surprise that the Scientific Advisory Board passed this report for publication. We hope that policymakers familiarise themselves with the many mistakes in this report and adjust their estimation of the value of its findings accordingly.

This report looks like a poor return for the investment of time that the reported 10,222 respondents put into it. There were more than 70 questions, most of which required some thought (just how many times a week is the child bloated, crotchety, sugar-craving and how frequently does the child eat nuts, wholegrains etc.). Depending on how much thought was necessary, filling in the questionnaire might take 30-50 minutes. So, 10,222 x 40 minutes. These data are the results from a collective input of 408,880 minutes or 6,814 hrs and 40 mins from the respondents. The reports’ authors really must try harder.

FFTB Child Survey 2007 Literature overview (pdf) See references 1-4 in related reading.

For the data and analyses in these next two, see references 6-10 in related reading.

FFTB Child Survey 2007 SAT Scores Variance (pdf)

FFTB Child Survey 2007 Dark Green Leafy Vegetables (pdf)

Related Reading

Food for the Brain Child Survey 2007: The Promotion
Holfordwatch looks at the literature review:
Food for the Brain Child Survey 2007: Review Part 1
Food for the Brain Child Survey 2007: Review Part 2
Food for the Brain Child Survey 2007: Review Part 3
Food for the Brain Child Survey 2007: Review Part 4
Food for the Brain Child Survey 2007: Review Part 5

Holfordwatch approaches Professor Holford and two members of the Scientific Advisory Board with questions that they do not answer. Holfordwatch reviews the data and analyses:
Food for the Brain Child Survey 2007: Review Part 7
Food for the Brain Child Survey 2007: Review Part 8
Why Don’t Food for the Brain Report Their Survey Results on Supplement Pills Survey: Review Part 9
Food for the Brain Child Survey 2007: Review Part 10
Chair of FFTB Scientific Advisory Board acknowledges that their research hasn’t been “a proper job” and hasn’t been “rigorous”