Association between Ultra-Processed Food Consumption and Excess of Weight in Women with Endometrial Cancer

Abstract

Obesity is one of major risk factor for endometrial cancer, which is the eighth most incident cancer among women in Brazil. The present study aimed to assess any possible associations between ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption and clinical or sociodemographic characteristics of women diagnosed with endometrial cancer. This is a cross-sectional study with women newly diagnosed with endometrial cancer (EC). The study was conducted between December 2016 and January 2020, at a reference center for gynecological cancer treatment. The nutritional status was assessed by measuring anthropometric parameters and food consumption by the food frequency questionnaire. Multiple logistic regression was performed for the dependent variables overweight and obesity. The analyses were considered statistically significant when p < 0,05. The study population consisted of 318 women, with a mean age of 59.1 ± 6.9 years. The average daily energy intake was 2365.13 kcal/day, with 70.48% of energy consumption from fresh or minimally processed foods and 16.95% from UPF. Women above the highest tertile of UPF intake (19.27%) were more likely to be obese (OR: 1.95; 95% CI: 1.12; 3.41, p < 0.01). Having a partner and systemic arterial hypertension was associated with the outcome. The high intake of UPF was associated with obesity, which indicates the need for nutritional intervention in this population.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the research team we kindly name “sobreviventes” (survivors), for their valuable support to the cohort’s data collection: Nathália Silva de Paula, Amanda Pereira Mota, João Paulo Fernandes, Taiara Poltronieri, Gian Pietro, Fernando Frajacomo and Cláudia Bessa.

Disclosure Statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.