Dietary vitamin A deficiencies and stomach cancer.
The hypothesis of vitamin A intake deficiencies serving as an antecedent factor in the development of stomach cancer was assessed employing a case-control design. Interviews of proxy informants for 111 cases and a pair-matched control group were conducted using a food frequency questionnaire from which an averaged vitamin A intake index was calculated. Stomach cancer cases showed a significantly higher proportion with lowered total vitamin A intake levels (odds ratio = 1.71) which remained constant across sex and socioeconomic status groupings. These results demonstrated a consistency with previous related studies vis-à-vis the strength and specificity of the putative association, a moderate (but statistically nonsignificant) dose-response curve, proper temporal association, and biologic plausibility.
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001161:Arteriosclerosis / Q000209:etiology; D003644:Death Certificates; D004032:Diet; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010414:Pennsylvania; D012737:Sex Factors; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D014802:Vitamin A Deficiency / Q000150:complications*