Interpretation of energy adjustment models for nutritional epidemiology.

The authors discuss the interpretation of three alternative energy adjustment models for nutritional epidemiology. It is shown that four different effects are addressed by these models: 1) adding nutrient N, 2) substituting nutrient N for "other" nutrients, 3) adding "other" nutrients, and 4) adding both N and "other" nutrients in a specific ratio. Each of these effects may be estimated from any of the three models. The relative standard errors for the four estimated effects are also provided.