Dietary patterns and risk of oral and pharyngeal cancer: a case-control study in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Abstract

The study investigated the association between dietary patterns and oral cancer as part of a Latin American multicenter hospital-based case-control study, and included 210 incident cases of oral cancer and 251 controls. Dietary data were collected using a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). Factor analysis was used to define dietary patterns, which were categorized into terciles. Odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were calculated using unconditional multiple logistic regression. The patterns 'prudent', characterized mainly by vegetables and fruits, and 'traditional', by rice, and pulses showed an inverse association with oral cancer for the higher tercile, respectively, OR = 0.44; 95%CI: 0.25-0.75, p value for trend (p tend) = 0.03; OR = 0.53; 95%CI: 0.30-0.93, p tend = 0.06. The 'snacks pattern' was not associated with oral cancer. Besides the protective effect of a diet rich in vegetables and fruit, our data suggest that the traditional Brazilian diet, consisting mostly of rice and beans, may improve protection against oral cancer.