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Dietary habits in Crohn's disease families in Quebec : a case-control study

Background. Worldwide, the incidence of Crohn's Disease (CD) has been rising in the last thirty years. It has no known causal factor, and remains incurable today. Using a hospital registry of French Canadian CD patients, a case-control study was undertaken in 1989 to assess potential risk factors for CD. / Methods. 49 CD cases and 48 controls (healthy family members) answered a food frequency questionnaire that referred to dietary exposure at the time of CD diagnosis. / Results. CD patients were younger than family controls: 35 years vs. 41 years (p = 0.001). They also had more years of schooling (8.0 years vs. 5.0 years; p = 0.017) and held higher skilled work (OR = 0.23; 95% CI: 0.08-0.69). Univariate analyses showed that CD patients consumed more carbohydrate-rich and less fiber-rich foods than controls: OR cornflakes = 3.43 (95% CI: 1.40-7.91); OR white bread = 8.75 (95% CI: 3.01-25.42); OR high fiber bread = 0.09 (95% CI: 0.03-0.23); OR fruit and vegetable intake = 0.24 (95% CI: 0.09-0.60). Multivariate conditional logistic regression modeling confirmed that cornflakes, white bread and to a lesser extent, fiber, were associated with CD: OR cornflakes = 5.23 (95% 1.02-26.91); OR white bread = 7.91 (95% CI: 1.16- 54.11); OR fiber = 0.36 (95% CI: 0.01-1.30). / Conclusions. Although this original study confirms previous results, the possibility that biases, namely reverse-causality and recall, may have influenced associations between dietary factors and CD, warrants further research. A nested case-control study may offer an interesting design.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.27281
Date January 1997
CreatorsBernard, Edmond-Jean.
ContributorsCollet, Jean-Paul (advisor)
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageMaster of Science (Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.)
RightsAll items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
Relationalephsysno: 001565302, proquestno: MQ29655, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest.

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