O-71 - Serum beta-carotene shows a strong protective mortality association in cohorts (RR 0.69) that randomized trials exclude
A referenced fact resting on no data of the Viewpoint’s own. Discriminating value: even when dietary measurement error is bypassed with a biochemical assay, the cohort association failed to replicate in randomized trials — evidence that the confounding/selection problem, not just measurement error, drives nutritional-cohort associations.
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Why this is evidence
A cohort association measured with an objective biochemical assay (beta-carotene) that RCTs exclude shows nutritional-cohort associations can be pure confounding even without measurement error — supporting H-54’s ‘no real operative exposure / artefact’ branch over a genuine egg-intrinsic agent (H-26 or H-3).