Associations between an obesity-related dietary pattern and incidence of overall and site-specific cancers - a prospective cohort study

Q: What was the main goal of this prospective cohort study?

To assess how an obesity-related dietary pattern relates to overall cancer risk and to incidence of 19 specific cancer sites.

Q: How was the obesity-related dietary pattern derived?

Researchers classified 210 food items into 47 food groups and used reduced-rank regression to generate an obesity-related dietary pattern score.

Q: Which factors mediated the relationship with overall cancer?

Parallel mediation suggested mediation through BMI, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), C-reactive protein, high-density lipoproteins (HDLs), and triglycerides.

Sep 24, 2026

Uploaded by Callum

A dietary pattern may influence cancer incidence more strongly than individual foods, yet the relationship with obesity-related eating patterns remains unclear. This prospective cohort study examined associations between an obesity-related dietary pattern and overall cancer as well as 19 site-specific cancers. Dietary intake (114,289 participants) was assessed multiple times, an obesity-related pattern was derived via reduced-rank regression, and Cox models evaluated hazard ratios. Mediation analyses quantified BMI, WHR, inflammation and lipid markers.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Background

Maimaitiyiming etal. BMC Medicine (2023) 21:251 [https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02955-y](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-023-02955-y) BMC Medicine RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Associations between an obesity-related dietary pattern and incidence of overall and site-specific cancers: a prospective cohort study Maiwulamujiang Maimaitiyiming1, Hongxi Yang2, Lihui Zhou1, Xinyu Zhang1, Qiliang Cai3 and Yaogang Wang1* Abstract Background A dietary pattern (DP) may impact on cancer incidence more strongly than individual foods, but this association remains uncertain. Here, we aimed to broadly explore the associations of an obesity-related DP with overall and 19 site-specific cancers. Methods This study included 114,289 cancer-free participants with at least two dietary assessments. A total of 210 food items were classified into 47 food groups, and the mean amount of each food group was used in reduced-rank regression to derive the obesity-related DP. Cox regressions were conducted to explore the associations ofthe obesity-related DP with overall and 19 site-specific cancers. The parallel mediation model was constructed to quantify the mediating roles of potential mediators. Results During a median follow-up period of 9.4 years, 10,145 (8 . 9%) incident cancer cases were documented. The derived-DP was characterized by a higher intake of beer and cider, processed meat, high sugar beverages, red meat, and artificial sweetener, and a lower intake of fresh vegetables, olive oil, tea, and high fiber breakfast cereals. Observational analysis showed that a higher obesity-related DP Z-score was linearly associated with an increased risk of overall cancer (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) = 1 . 02, 95% CI: 1. 01, 1.04 per 1-SD increase, corrected P < 0. 001) . For sitespecific cancer, positive linear associations for six cancer sites (oral, colorectal, liver, lung, endometrium, and thyroid) and nonlinear associations for six cancer sites (esophagus, malignant melanoma, prostate, kidney, bladder, and multiple myeloma) were observed. The paralleled mediation analysis suggested that the association between the obesityrelated DP and overall cancer is mediated by the body mass index (BMI), the waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), C-reactive protein, high-density lipoproteins (HDLs), and triglycerides. Conclusions The developed obesity-related DP is strongly associated with overall and multiple cancer sites. Our findings highlight the complicated and diverse associations between an obesity-related DP and cancers and provide clues for future research directions. Keywords Dietary pattern, Cancer risk, Cohort study, Reduced-rank regression *Correspondence: Yaogang Wang [YaogangWANG@tmu.edu.cn](YaogangWANG@tmu.edu.cn) Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ()[. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ()[http://creativeco](http://creativec

FAQs

What was the main goal of this prospective cohort study?

To assess how an obesity-related dietary pattern relates to overall cancer risk and to incidence of 19 specific cancer sites.

How was the obesity-related dietary pattern derived?

Researchers classified 210 food items into 47 food groups and used reduced-rank regression to generate an obesity-related dietary pattern score.

Which factors mediated the relationship with overall cancer?

Parallel mediation suggested mediation through BMI, waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), C-reactive protein, high-density lipoproteins (HDLs), and triglycerides.

Sep 24, 2026

Uploaded by Callum