Abstract 1910: Evaluating adherence to recommended diets among cancer patients
Authors: Kim Hye In , Lee Jung Eun 
Published: July 2012

Background: Healthy diet and lifestyle may be important for cancer patients to prevent reoccurrence and prolong their lives. But little is known about adherence to a healthy diet among cancer patients in Asian population.

Objective: We examined whether Korean cancer patients and patients with cured cancer adhered to a healthy diet in a large cross-sectional study, the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) using American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) guidelines developed for cancer prevention and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet recommended for high blood pressure.

Methods: We analyzed data from the fourth KNHANES performed between July 2007 and December 2008. A total of 103 cancer patients, 139 patients with cured cancer, and 7,963 participants who never had cancer were included. We calculated AICR adherence score based on intakes of fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grain, red meat/processed meat, sweetened beverages, and sodium and physical activity, alcohol consumption, body mass index, and smoking status and DASH style diet score based on intakes of fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grain, red meat/processed meat, sweetened beverages, fat, and sodium. Multivariate polytomous logistic regression was used to obtain Odds Ratio (OR)s and 95% confidence interval (CI)s to compare adherence among cancer patients, patients with cured cancer and those who never had cancer.

Results: Patients with cured cancer or cancer patients were more likely to follow AICR guidelines or DASH style diet compared to those who never had cancers. For patients with cured cancer, multivariate ORs (95% CIs) were 2.24 (1.31, 3.85) for the 2nd tertile and 3.35 (1.96, 5.73) for the 3rd tertile of AICR adherence score (p trend &lt;0.001), compared to the 1st tertile. For cancer patients, multivariate ORs (95% CIs) were 2.27 (1.23, 4.17) for the 2nd tertile and 3.44 (1.87, 6.35) for the 3rd tertile of AICR adherence score (p trend &lt;0.001), compared to the 1st tertile. When we compared the 3rd tertile to the 1st tertile of DASH style diet score, we found OR of 2.31 (95% CI, 1.30, 4.08; p trend =0.001) for patients with cured cancer and OR of 1.60 (95% CI, 0.89, 2.88; p trend = 0.06) for cancer patients. We also found that the degree of adherence to AICR guidelines or DASH style diet among cancer patients was stronger among ever smokers than never smokers (p interaction = 0.03).

Conclusions: Korean patients with cured cancer and cancer patients showed higher adherence to recommended diets designed to prevent cancer or high blood pressure than those who never had cancers. Our observation warrants further prospective studies to evaluate the association of adherence to a healthy diet in relation to survival and quality of life among Asian population diagnosed with cancer.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1910. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-1910