A PROMPT analysis of the study by Riviere et al (2001) which examined whether a nutritional education program could prevent weight loss in patients with Alzheimer's disease found that the information was clearly presented in a standard format for empirical studies. The language is impartial, specific, not overly technical and easily understandable by a person with a scientific background. The authors had no obvious conflicts of interest and were sponsored by the European Health Promotion Programme, a non-commercial organisation. However, the scope of the study was small: only 151 subjects were studied for 12 months. This may be too small a group and too short a time to draw meaningful conclusions. Additionally, the study group was from southern Europe, which has many different dietary and environmental factors than the UK, making direct comparisons problematic. An evaluation of the experimental design demonstrated that, despite the concerns expressed above, the study has external validity. The patient cohort studied is similar to the general population of people with Alzheimer's disease in the UK: they live in the community with an informal carer as their main carer. The results are reliable as they measure recognized and duplicable outcomes such as the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA), Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE), Activity of Daily Living (ADL) and Instrumental Activity of Daily Living (IADL) scales, the Cornel scale, and the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI). Although it provided useful information for the question posed, the experiment was designed with the primary goal of evaluating whether weight loss could be prevented by a nutrition education program, not by preventing or slowing the progression of Alzheimer's. However, the authorization groups… at the heart of the document… were in fact matched. An 18-month follow-up of the HC cohort also showed that adherence to Media was significantly correlated with reduced cognitive decline as measured by the MMSE.Works CitedGardener, S., Gu, Y., Rainey-Smith, S.R., Keogh, JB., Clifton, PM, Mathieson, SL, Taddei, K., Mondal, A., Ward, VK, Scarmeas, N., Barnes, M., Ellis, KA, Head, R., Masters, CL, Ames, D., Macaulay, SL., Rowe, C.C., Szoeke, C., Martins, R.N. (2012) 'Adherence to a Mediterranean diet and risk of Alzheimer's disease in an Australian population' [online], Translational Psychiatry, vol. 2 (accessed 1 May 2014).Riviere, S., Gillette-Guyonnet, S., Voisin, T., Reynish, E., Andrieu, S. (2001) 'A nutrition education program could prevent weight loss and slow cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease', The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging, vol. 5, no. 4.