title: The Thompson-McFadden Commission and Joseph Goldberger: contrasting 2 historical investigations of pellagra in cotton mill villages in South Carolina.
abstract: As pellagra reached epidemic proportions in the United States in the early 20th century, 2 teams of investigators assessed its incidence in cotton mill villages in South Carolina. The first, the Thompson-McFadden Commission, concluded that pellagra was likely infectious. The second, a Public Health Service investigation led by Joseph Goldberger, concluded that pellagra was caused by a dietary deficiency. In this paper, we recount the history of the 2 investigations and consider how the differences between the 2 studies' designs, measurements, analyses, and interpretations led to different conclusions. Because the novel dietary assessment strategy was a key feature of the Public Health Service's study design, we incorporated simulated measurement error in a reanalysis of the Public Health Service's data to assess whether this specific difference affected the divergent conclusions.
authors: Stephen J
authors: SJ
authors: Mooney
authors: Justin
authors: J
authors: Knox
authors: Alfredo
authors: A
authors: Morabia
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000266:history; D005260:Female; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D010383:Pellagra / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history*; D011634:Public Health / Q000266:history; D012107:Research Design; D013022:South Carolina / Q000453:epidemiology; D013783:Textile Industry / Q000266:history*
keywords: epidemiology in history; measurement; multilevel epidemiology; nutrition