Nitrate intake and gastric cancer risk: results from the Netherlands cohort study

The aim of the study was to assess the relation between health-related beliefs concerning the importance of risk factors in stomach cancer and positive health practices in eating habits. A multicentre hospital-based incident case-control study with 431 female stomach cancer cases aged less than 75 years and an equal number of age-matched controls without cancer has been carried out in Poland. The respondents were asked about their opinions on relevance in cancer prevention of such factors as protective role of raw vegetables and fresh fruit, consumption of fats, alcohol and coffee or using table salt. The data were compared with information on eating habits and diet behaviours in the reference group. It was shown in both groups that beliefs about the importance of raw vegetables and fresh fruit were closely associated with high frequency of everyday consumption of vegetables and fruit; however, statistically significant differences were found between cases and controls as regards the frequency of eating vegetables and fresh fruit at every meal. The same relation was observed between the belief in an unhealthy role of consumption of fats and using the animal fat in cooking. Univariate and multivariate analysis showed that a relation between beliefs and behaviours existed in the cases with the same demographic and social determinants.