A mixed-methods study to evaluate dietary intake before and after a diagnosis of colorectal cancer among the British population

Abstract

A mixed-methods study to evaluate dietary intake before and after a diagnosis of colorectal cancer in the British population Introduction The number of people who are living with and beyond cancer is growing globally; it was reported in 2018 that approximately 43.8 million people had survived cancer. A systematic review concluded that after receiving a cancer diagnosis, people generally changed their eating patterns to improve their diets. However, most of these studies were performed among women with breast cancer; only a few studies were performed in people with colorectal cancer (CRC), and only a small proportion of these were undertaken in the UK. It is important to assess the dietary intake of people with CRC to determine whether they change their diets after diagnosis without any intervention. Aims This study sought to determine whether people with CRC adhered to healthy eating recommendations and to discover whether a cancer diagnosis was sufficient to persuade people to change their dietary intake after diagnosis. In addition, the study was designed to explore the attitudes of people living with and beyond CRC toward dietary change after diagnosis and to determine what barriers or facilitators hindered or aided their planned changes to their dietary intake. Methods A sequential, explanatory, mixed-methods study was designed, which included a cross-sectional study. It was conducted among people with a diagnosis of CRC and matched controls through use of the UK Biobank data. This was followed by a cohort study that used the same data and was conducted among people with CRC before and after diagnosis. To explore this further, a qualitative study that was informed by the results of the two quantitative studies was undertaken. This qualitative study used existing interview data. Results The cross-sectional study considered the data of 5,980 people with CRC and 17,940 matched controls who were free of cancer. The findings revealed that people with CRC were less likely than the matched controls to adhere to healthy eating recommendations regarding intake of fruit and vegetables (odds ratio (OR)=0.94, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.88 to 1.01, p=0.076), whole grains (OR=0.84, 95% CI 0.77 to 0.91, p

Date of Award	1 Aug 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Mark Hann (Supervisor) & Sorrel Burden (Supervisor)