No, an apple a day does not appear to keep the doctor away. But, a new study semi-seriously suggests, it may keep the pharmacist away. The study serves as an instructive and humorous way to look at the perpetually thorny problem of how to best understand and make use of findings from observational studies. As this new paper makes clear, the limitations of observational studies are quite considerable, but that does not mean that they are completely worthless.
Although apples have long been considered a healthy snack, whether eating apples actually reduces healthcare use has not been assessed until now. In a paper published in JAMA Internal Medicine researchers examined the association between healthcare utilization and apple consumption in more than 8,000 adults participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
At first glance apples appeared to be related to significant benefits…
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