FIGURE 3.

Consumption of dairy products in Australia and the relative risk of stroke. In ‘high versus low’ meta-analysis of the effects of dairy product consumption upon stroke, Elwood et al. (17) report the relative risk of stroke to be 0.78 (equivalent to 1.28 comparing low consumption level with high). Based on this result and on median daily consumptions of 0.5 and 3.4 servings of dairy foods in the first and fifth quintiles of the Australian population (8), the solid line shows how risk of stroke was assumed to vary with dairy product consumption in the base case analysis (including an extrapolation from 0.5 to 0.0 servings). In sensitivity analysis S1, the same RR was assumed to relate to nil consumption and two servings per day (the lower limit of the recommended daily consumption according to Australian guidelines (2). In both analyses, it was assumed that no further reductions in risk would occur beyond the point at which RR = 1.00.