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Food and health

Association between dietary inflammatory index and the risk of oral cancer in the southeast of China

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 74, pages 938–944 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/objectives

To evaluate the role of the potential inflammatory effects of diet using the Energy adjusted Dietary Inflammatory Index (E-DII) for oral cancer.

Subjects/methods

A case-control study including 295 oral cancer cases and 425 controls from September 2010 to June 2018 was performed in Fujian Province, China. The E-DII was calculated based on the food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and adjusted by total energy intake. The association between E-DII and the risk of oral cancer was estimated with unconditional logistic regression model.

Results

Compared with E-DII score in the lowest quartile, those with E-DII score in the fourth quartile were at the higher risk of oral cancer (OR = 2.57; 95% CI: 1.54, 4.29, Ptrend = 0.013). When analyses were carried out using E-DII as a continuous variable, one-unit increase in E-DII increased the odds of having oral cancer by 3% (95% CI: 1.00, 1.06). Moreover, there was a significant interaction between the E-DII and oral hygiene for oral cancer (Pinteraction < 0.001, in those without and with poor hygiene, the OR (95% CI) were 1.96 (0.96, 4.00) and 4.23 (1.83, 9.81), respectively).

Conclusions

The present study suggests that the higher E-DII score, indicated a pro-inflammatory diet, may be a risk factor for oral cancer in southeast of China. More large samples and prospective studies need to validate our results and explore the prevention strategies of oral cancer via changing dietary habits.

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Funding

This study was funded by Fujian Natural Science Foundation Program (No. 2019J01314), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in Fujian Province University (No. 2018B029), Joint Funds for the Innovation of Science and Technology of Fujian province (Nos. 2016Y9033, 2017Y9103), the Scientific Research Talents Training Project of Health and Family Planning Health Commission in Fujian Province (Nos. 2019-ZQN-68, 2018-1-71, and 2017-ZQN-57), the High-level Talents research Startup Project of Fujian Medical University (No. XRCZX2018001), Startup Fund for Scientific Research of Fujian Medical University (No. 2017XQ1011).

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Xiaodan Bao, Fa Chen

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Environment Factors and Cancer, School of Public Health, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China

    Xiaodan Bao, Fa Chen, Jing Lin, Qing Chen, Lin Chen, Rui Wang, Fengqiong Liu, Lingjun Yan & Baochang He

  2. Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Gastrointestinal Cancer, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China

    Xiaodan Bao, Fa Chen, Jing Lin, Qing Chen, Lin Chen, Rui Wang, Fengqiong Liu, Lingjun Yan & Baochang He

  3. Laboratory Center, School of Public Health, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China

    Jing Wang

  4. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, China

    Lisong Lin, Yu Qiu, Lizhen Pan,  Bin Shi & Xiaoyan Zheng

Authors
  1. Xiaodan Bao
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Contributions

XB and FC: wrote the manuscript. LC, QC, JL, RW, and JW: data collection and analysis. JW, FL and LY: interpreted the data. LL, YQ, LZP, BS, and XZ: coordinated the research. BH: designed the study.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Baochang He.

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Bao, X., Chen, F., Lin, J. et al. Association between dietary inflammatory index and the risk of oral cancer in the southeast of China. Eur J Clin Nutr 74, 938–944 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-019-0507-9

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