Dietary patterns and stomach cancer: A meta-analysis

Investigation of the relationship between dietary patterns and some chronic diseases becomes appealing in nutrition epidemiology. Many studies reported potential associations between different dietary patterns and the risk of stomach cancer, however, a consistent perspective hasn't been established to date. Herein, we carried this meta-analysis to identify the associations between different dietary patterns and the risk of stomach cancer. A total of 23 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in this meta-analysis. A decreased risk of stomach cancer was shown for the highest compared with the lowest category of a "healthy" dietary pattern [odds ratio (OR) = 0.69; confidence interval (CI): 0.53, 0.89; P = 0.005). There were evidence of the increased risk of stomach cancer in the highest compared with the lowest categories of Western-style pattern (OR = 1.59; CI: 1.25, 2.04; P = 0.0002) and alcohol-drinking pattern (OR = 1.37; CI: 1.11, 1.70; P = 0.004). The results of this meta-analysis indicate that healthy dietary pattern may decrease the risk of stomach cancer, whereas Western-style and alcohol-drinking dietary patterns may increase the risk of stomach cancer.