Dietary habits and right-sided colonic diverticulosis

PURPOSE: In Asian populations, there is a high prevalence of right-sided co lonic diverticulosis, the cause of which is uncertain. It is suspected that dietary habits may interact with a congenital predilection to cause this c ondition. To evaluate the relationship between long-term dietary habits and the prevalence of right-sided diverticulosis in the general population, we performed a retrospective case-control study. METHODS: We reviewed the rec ords of 3,105 screening colonoscopies performed on healthy, asymptomatic ad ults. All cases of right-sided diverticulosis were selected, and a similar number of gender-matched and age-matched controls with negative colonoscopi es were randomly sampled from the same cohort. All case and control subject s were interviewed by a single-blinded nurse to establish their dietary hab its during the past decade, in addition to other demographic characteristic s. Based on consumption frequency, they were assigned to one of three diet classes for each of three food categories of interest: meat, vegetable, and fruit products. Staple foods such as rice were not included. Odds ratios w ere then calculated using multivariate conditional logistic regression and tests for trend were performed. RESULTS: A total of 86 cases of right-sided diverticulosis were included, whereas 106 controls were randomly selected. There was a marked association between meat consumption frequency and righ t-sided diverticulosis, with a trend P value of <0.01 and an odds ratio of 24.81 between the most and least frequent consumers of meat products. Concl usions: The prevalence of right-sided diverticulosis is strongly positively associated with past meat consumption frequency. There is no association w ith vegetable or fruit consumption frequency, laxative use, supplemental fi ber intake, smoking, or family history.