Association of serum carotenoid concentration and dietary habits among the JACC Study subjects.
BACKGROUND
We wished to determine the validity of the association between serum carotenoid concentrations and dietary habits obtained from a food frequency questionnaire in the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study (JACC Study) for Evaluation of Cancer Risk sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan (Monbusho).


METHODS
The subjects were 866 male and 569 female controls in nested case-control studies for evaluating the risk of lung, colorectal, and urothelial cancers as parts of the JACC Study. Dietary habits were assessed using a food frequency questionnaire, and serum samples were obtained at baseline. Serum carotenoid concentrations of frozen-stored sera were measured and compared with the results of the survey.


RESULTS
In males, consumption of dairy products, some oily foods, vegetables, fruits, and boiled beans correlated positively with serum carotenoid concentrations, whereas ingestion of boiled rice and sansai (edible wild plants) was negatively correlated with serum carotenoids. In females, only fruit consumption was positively correlated with serum carotenoid concentration, whereas ingestion of butter, sansai, and potatoes were negatively correlated. Some specific associations, between serum lycopene and tomato consumption and between serum beta-cryptoxanthin and ingestion of oranges, were observed in both sexes.


CONCLUSIONS
In males, serum carotenoid concentrations were slightly associated with intake of foods rich in carotenoids. The lack of associations in females suggests that the food frequency questionnaire did not validly evaluate females' dietary habits concerning carotenoids in the JACC Study.
Ozasa
Kotaro
K
Department of Epidemiology for Community Health and Medicine, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine Graduate School of Medical Science, Japan. kozasa@koto.kpu-m.ac.jp
Ito
Yoshinori
Y
Suzuki
Koji
K
Watanabe
Yoshiyuki
Y
Wakai
Kenji
K
Tamakoshi
Akiko
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002338:Carotenoids / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000097:blood*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004034:Diet Surveys; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009752:Nutritional Status; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014571:Urologic Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology*
D002338:Carotenoids