Evaluating adherence to recommended diets among cancer patients

Abstract

We examined dietary and health-related behaviors among Korean cancer patients in the fourth Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. To compare the dietary and health-related behaviors among cancer patients, patients who had recovered from cancer, and those who had never had cancer, we obtained odds ratio (OR)s and 95% confidence interval (CI)s for the adherence to American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) recommendations or a Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH)-style diet using the multivariate polytomous logistic regression. A total of 103 cancer patients, 139 patients who had recovered from cancer, and 7,963 participants who had never had cancer were included. Patients who had ever been diagnosed with cancer were more likely to follow AICR recommendations or a DASH-style diet compared to those who had never had cancer. Compared to bottom tertile of the AICR adherence score, ORs (95% CIs) in the top tertile were 3.19 (1.86-5.46) for patients who recovered from cancer and 3.34 (1.81-6.17) for cancer patients. For a DASH-style diet, we found an OR of 2.26 (95% CI 1.28-3.99) for patients who recovered from cancer and an OR of 1.60 (95% CI 0.89-2.89) for cancer patients, comparing top to bottom tertiles. We also found that the degree of adherence among cancer patients was stronger among ever smokers than never smokers. Korean patients who had ever been diagnosed with cancer showed higher adherence to diets designed to prevent cancer or high blood pressure than those who had never had cancer. Our observations warrant further prospective studies to evaluate the association of adherence to a healthy diet with survival and quality of life among Asian cancer patients.