Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Mar;67(3):466-472.
doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2016-313082. Epub 2017 Jan 9.

Meat intake and risk of diverticulitis among men

Yin Cao  1   2   3 , Lisa L Strate  4 , Brieze R Keeley  5 , Idy Tam  6 , Kana Wu  3 , Edward L Giovannucci  3   7   8 , Andrew T Chan  1   2   8   9
Affiliations

Meat intake and risk of diverticulitis among men

Yin Cao et al. Gut. 2018 Mar.

Abstract

Objective: Diverticulitis is a common disease with a substantial clinical and economic burden. Besides dietary fibre, the role of other foods in the prevention of diverticulitis is underexplored.

Design: We prospectively examined the association between consumption of meat (total red meat, red unprocessed meat, red processed meat, poultry and fish) with risk of incident diverticulitis among 46 461 men enrolled in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (1986-2012). Cox proportional hazards models were used to compute relative risks (RRs) and 95% CIs.

Results: During 651 970 person-years of follow-up, we documented 764 cases of incident diverticulitis. Compared with men in the lowest quintile (Q1) of total red meat consumption, men in the highest quintile (Q5) had a multivariable RR of 1.58 (95% CI 1.19 to 2.11; p for trend=0.01). The increase in risk was non-linear, plateauing after six servings per week (p for non-linearity=0.002). The association was stronger for unprocessed red meat (RR for Q5 vs Q1: 1.51; 95% CI 1.12 to 2.03; p for trend=0.03) than for processed red meat (RR for Q5 vs Q1: 1.03; 95% CI 0.78 to 1.35; p for trend=0.26). Higher consumption of poultry or fish was not associated with risk of diverticulitis. However, the substitution of poultry or fish for one serving of unprocessed red meat per day was associated with a decrease in risk of diverticulitis (multivariable RR 0.80; 95% CI 0.63 to 0.99).

Conclusions: Red meat intake, particularly unprocessed red meat, was associated with an increased risk of diverticulitis. The findings provide practical dietary guidance for patients at risk of diverticulitis.

Keywords: DIETARY FACTORS; DIVERTICULAR DISEASE; EPIDEMIOLOGY.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: ATC previously served as a consultant for Bayer Healthcare, Aralaz Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer Inc. for work unrelated to the topic of this manuscript. This study was not funded by Bayer Healthcare, Pozen Aralez Pharmaceuticals or Pfizer Inc.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of the study population.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Non-parametric restricted cubic splines of meat intake (servings/wk) and risk of diverticulitis. a. Total red meat b. Unprocessed red meat c. Processed red meat d. Poultry e. Fish
Figure 2
Figure 2
Non-parametric restricted cubic splines of meat intake (servings/wk) and risk of diverticulitis. a. Total red meat b. Unprocessed red meat c. Processed red meat d. Poultry e. Fish
Figure 2
Figure 2
Non-parametric restricted cubic splines of meat intake (servings/wk) and risk of diverticulitis. a. Total red meat b. Unprocessed red meat c. Processed red meat d. Poultry e. Fish
Figure 2
Figure 2
Non-parametric restricted cubic splines of meat intake (servings/wk) and risk of diverticulitis. a. Total red meat b. Unprocessed red meat c. Processed red meat d. Poultry e. Fish
Figure 2
Figure 2
Non-parametric restricted cubic splines of meat intake (servings/wk) and risk of diverticulitis. a. Total red meat b. Unprocessed red meat c. Processed red meat d. Poultry e. Fish
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Peery AF, Crockett SD, Barritt AS, Dellon ES, Eluri S, Gangarosa LM, et al. Burden of Gastrointestinal, Liver, and Pancreatic Diseases in the United States. Gastroenterology. 2015;149:1731. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nguyen GC, Sam J, Anand N. Epidemiological trends and geographic variation in hospital admissions for diverticulitis in the United States. World journal of gastroenterology : WJG. 2011;17:1600–5. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bharucha AE, Parthasarathy G, Ditah I, Fletcher JG, Ewelukwa O, Pendlimari R, et al. Temporal Trends in the Incidence and Natural History of Diverticulitis: A Population-Based Study. Am J Gastroenterol. 2015;110:1589–96. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Shahedi K, Fuller G, Bolus R, Cohen E, Vu M, Shah R, et al. Long-term Risk of Acute Diverticulitis Among Patients With Incidental Diverticulosis Found During Colonoscopy. Clin Gastroenterol H. 2013;11:1609–13. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Strate LL, Modi R, Cohen E, Spiegel BMR. Diverticular Disease as a Chronic Illness: Evolving Epidemiologic and Clinical Insights. American Journal of Gastroenterology. 2012;107:1486–93. - PubMed

Publication types