The Women’s Health Initiative: Implications for clinicians

ABSTRACT

The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), the largest and longest randomized controlled study to date of the effect of dietary change on disease outcomes in postmenopausal women, failed to show that a low-fat diet prevents breast cancer, colon cancer, or cardiovascular disease. However, as the authors point out, the WHI Extension Study provides opportunities to assess whether nearly significant differences in breast cancer rates at 8 years become significant after 10 years of follow-up.