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Nutrient Intakes, Nutritional Patterns and the Risk of Liver Cirrhosis: An Explorative Case-Control Study

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Abstract

Several experimental studies have suggested that specific nutrients might play a role on the risk of liver damage. Nevertheless, few epidemiological studies have evaluated the role of diet on the risk of symptomatic liver cirrhosis, giving contradictory results. To evaluate the role of the intake of nutritional factors and dietary patterns on the risk of symptomatic liver cirrhosis and to examine their combined action with alcohol consumption we used data from the Italian Study on Liver Cirrhosis Determinants project. From 1994 to 1998 all the consecutive cirrhotic inpatients admitted to 19 Italian collaborative hospitals for signs of liver decompensation in whom the diagnosis of liver cirrhosis was made for the first time (259 cases) and one or two gender, age and area of residence matched individuals (416 controls) were recruited. Data on lifetime alcohol intake, usual consumption of 191 food items and on markers of hepatitis B and C viral infection were collected. The analysis of principal components identified a nutritional pattern positively correlated with vegetable and fruit intakes and negatively with animal and no-fruit sugar products. With respect to abstainers, relative risks in consumers of use ≤25 and ≥51g/day of alcohol increased from 0.4 [95% confidence interval 0.0, 5.9] to 9.3 [1.3, 69.0] and from 2.1 [1.1, 4.2] to 18.1 [2.8, 118.3] for the lowest and the highest value of this nutritional pattern, respectively. Diet might therefore modulate the damaging effect of alcohol on the liver.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Statistica, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Via Bicocca degli Arcimboldi, 8, Edificio U7, 20126, Milano, Italy

    Giovanni Corrao

  2. Department of Statistics, Chair of Epidemiology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

    Antonella Zambon & Vinccnzo Bagnardi

  3. Gastroenterology Unit, Mauriziano Umberto I Hospital, Turin, Italy

    Sarino Aricò

  4. Department of Clinical and Experimental Internal Medicine “Flaviano Magrassi”, II University of Naples, Naples, Italy

    Carmelina Loguercio

  5. National Nutrition Institute, Rome, Italy

    Amleto D'amicis

Authors
  1. Giovanni Corrao
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  2. Antonella Zambon
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  3. Vinccnzo Bagnardi
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  4. Sarino Aricò
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  5. Carmelina Loguercio
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  6. Amleto D'amicis
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Corrao, G., Zambon, A., Bagnardi, V. et al. Nutrient Intakes, Nutritional Patterns and the Risk of Liver Cirrhosis: An Explorative Case-Control Study. Eur J Epidemiol 19, 861–869 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:EJEP.0000040534.89451.d2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:EJEP.0000040534.89451.d2

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