Dietary Fiber and Fiber Fraction Intakes and Colorectal Cancer Risk in Chinese Adults

Abstract

Few studies have been conducted in Chinese adults to investigate the effect of fiber intake on colorectal cancer risk. The present study aimed to examine the associations of dietary fiber and fiber fraction intakes with colorectal cancer risk in Chinese adults. A total of 613 cases with colorectal cancer were consecutively recruited between July 2010 and October 2012 and frequency matched to 613 controls by age (5-yr interval) and gender. Dietary information was collected through a validated food frequency questionnaire by face-to-face interviews. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) after adjustment for potential confounders. Total dietary fiber and fiber fraction intakes were found to be inversely associated with colorectal cancer risk. Compared with the lowest quartile, the adjusted ORs (95% CIs) for the highest quartile were 0.38 (0.27–0.55) for total dietary fiber, 0.45 (0.32–0.64) for vegetable fiber, and 0.41 (0.28–0.58) for fruit fiber, respectively. In addition, no significant association was found between soy fiber intake and colorectal cancer risk. This study showed that a high intake of dietary fiber, particularly derived from vegetables and fruit, was inversely associated with colorectal cancer risk in Chinese adults.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We very gratefully acknowledge the participation of the study subjects, without them the study would not be possible. Xiao Zhong and Yu-Jing Fang contributed equally to this work.