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Carl C. Seltzer, PhD
Peabody Museum Harvard University Cambridge, Mass

JAMA. 1985;254(18):2555.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

Dr Lewis Kuller is reported by your MEDICAL NEWS Editor Phil Gunby¹ as stating that while at the end of the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT),² the "intervention group" had cut its smoking rate markedly more than the "usual care group [controls]... the men who quit smoking had a coronary death rate almost 50% below those who kept on smoking."

This reported statement by Dr Kuller leaves the impression that the randomized controlled MRFIT experiment establishes that quitting smoking results in a substantial decline in coronary death rate. This is just not so. The randomized MRFIT experiment does not prove that quitting smoking causes a decline in coronary death rate. This is because the data analysis Dr Kuller referred to was obtained outside the randomized controlled design of the MRFIT trial. The unique character of the MRFIT was its randomized controlled design, adopted expressly . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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