Diet patterns commonly used in epidemiological research are derived using different
methods, yet there have been few studies assessing if and how research results may vary
in the same population across diet patterns.
This study assesses and compares five different diet patterns identified by Principal
Component Analysis (PCA), Cluster Analysis (CA), Alternate Mediterranean Diet (Alt-
Med), Dietary Inflammation Index (DII), and Recommended Food Score (RFS).
Colorectal cancer risk and patient’s survival is estimated using different patterns as an
independent variable. Comparisons are made using hazards ratio, correlation coefficients
and distributions of individuals in clusters.
Disease outcome estimation varied with diet patterns used and is mainly attributed to
differences in its foundation. Hazards ratios for DFS varied from 1.82; (95% CI- 1.07-
3.09) for processed meat pattern identified by PCA to HR 2.19; (95% CI 1.03-4.67) for
cluster characterized by meat and dairy products and HR 1.95; (95% CI 1.13-3.37) for
cluster characterized by refined grains, sugar, soft drinks. Only cluster characterized by
refined grains, sugar, soft drinks had higher risk of OS (HR 2.05; 95% CI 1.18-3.57). All
the diet indices showed similar null associations with both DFS and OS except Poor
adherence to altMED increased the risk of all-cause mortality (HR 1.62; 95% CI 1.04-
2.56)
