The Nurses Health Study (NHS) questionnaire had the following questions involving chicken skin.
When you eat chicken, how often is it cooked with the skin on?
How often do you eat the skin?
The same calculations were applied to NHS as the Health Professionals Follow-up Study (HPFS). In order to account for the four answers, the following percentages were applied:
The following table illustrates the number of different combinations possible.
| Percentage used in calculation | Cook with skin | Eat skin |
|---|---|---|
| 100% cook w/skin and eat w/skin | Always | Always |
| 75% cook w/skin and eat w/skin 25% cook w/skin and eat w/o skin | Always | Most |
| 50% cook w/skin and eat w/skin 50% cook w/skin and eat w/o skin | Always | Sometimes |
| 100% cook w/skin and eat w/o skin | Always | Never |
| 25% cooked w/o skin 75% cooked w/skin and eat w/skin | Most | Always |
| 25% cooked w/o skin, 56% cooked w/ skin and eat w/skin 19% cooked with skin and eat w/o skin | Most | Most |
| 25% cooked w/o skin 37.5% cooked w/skin and eat w/skin 37.5% cooked with skin and eat w/o skin | Most | Sometimes |
| 25% cooked w/o skin 75% cooked w/skin and eat w/o skin | Most | Never |
| 50% cooked w/o skin 50% cooked w/skin and eat w/skin | Sometimes | Always |
| 50% cooked w/o skin 37.5% cooked w/skin and eat w/skin 12.5% cooked with skin and eat w/o skin | Sometimes | Most |
| 50% cooked w/o skin 25% cooked w/skin and eat w/skin 25% cooked with skin and eat w/o skin | Sometimes | Sometimes |
| 50% cooked w/o skin 50% cooked with skin and eat w/o skin | Sometimes | Never |
| 100% cooked w/o skin | Never | Never |
A complete listing of the values is available.
For more information:
Kana Wu, MD, PhD
Harvard School of Public Health
Department of Nutrition
665 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
Tel. 617-432-1842
Fax. 617-432-2435
e-mail:kana.wu@channing.harvard.edu