In the Original Contribution entitled "Effect of Vitamin E and Beta
Carotene on the Incidence of Angina Pectoris: A Randomized, Double-blind,
Controlled Trial," published in the March 6, 1996, issue of THE JOURNAL (1996;275:693-698),
the authors recently discovered a computing error that affects the size of
the study population and has a slight effect on the relative risk (RR) estimates
of the 29,133 participants in the Alpha Tocopherol, Beta Carotene Cancer Prevention
Study: 23,862 were free of coronary heart disease at baseline, and during
follow-up 1920 new cases of angina pectoris were observed. Of these, 930 occurred
among α-tocopherol–supplemented subjects and 990 among the non-α-tocopherol–supplemented
subjects, with an RR for incident angina pectoris of 0.94 (95% confidence
interval [CI], 0.86-1.02; P=.15); 980 among the beta
carotene–supplemented subjects and 940 among non–beta carotene–supplemented
subjects, RR, 1.04 (95% CI, 0.96-1.14; P=.34).
Compared to those who received placebo, the RR for the incidence of angina
was 0.98 (95% CI, 0.86-1.11; P=.70) for the α-tocopherol
group; 1.09 (95% CI, 0.96-1.23; P=.19) for the beta
carotene group; and 0.98 (95% CI, 0.86-1.11; P=.73)
for the group that received alpha;-tocopherol and beta carotene combined.
The original conclusions remain unchanged.