There is a growing research interest in the Health aspects of Nutrition. Methods of alleviating the diseases or potentially life-threatening conditions without any side effects could be possible with Nutrition. The present description is concerned with evaluating the validity and reliability of Nutrition research with reference to colorectal cancer. This is a kind of multifactorial disease with various etiological factors connected to diet, physical activity and hormonal changes. In the recent period, there are certain discrepancies with regard to the efficacy of dietary patterns to minimize the risk of colon cancer. To this end, a large study was conducted to investigate the diet patterns associated with the risk of malignant and benign colorectal tumors among women (Emmanuelle, Françoise, & Marie, 2006). This study has a large sample size of 516 adenoma cases that has 175 high-risk adenomas and 4,804 polyp-free women and in 172 colorectal cancer cases and 67,312 cancer-free women. This could indicate that the investigators have better-grouped individuals in order to make a significant comparison between the cases and controls. Hence, the study design is very much reliable enough to make it worth fitting for significant data. Although cancer-free women outweigh the number of patients with characteristic signs of cancer, the sample design is still perfect. In addition, the study is cohort-based and involved a long period of data collection between June 1993 and July 1995. The authors were scientifically logical as they have categorized dietary patterns into four types as healthy that comprises of vegetables, fruit, yogurt, sea products, and olive oil, Western that has potatoes, pizzas and pies, sandwiches, sweets, cakes, cheese, cereal products, processed meat, eggs, and butter; Drinker that comprises of sandwiches, snacks, processed meat, and alcoholic beverages and “meat eaters that constitutes meat, poultry, and margarine. (Emmanuelle, Françoise, & Marie, 2006).
It is important to note that confounding factors were taken into consideration by focusing on total daily energy intake from the diet as a continuous variable, body mass index as a continuous variable, family history of colorectal cancer, physical activity, weekly tobacco status, etc.
The methodology followed in this study design has led to a significant finding at (95% confidence interval, p=0.003) where it was revealed that western dietary patterns are associated with increased risk of cancer. This study is very much in agreement with the standard research methodologies and suggests intervention strategies to minimize the effect of dietary patterns associated with the western style. However, there is also a need to explore the role of some of the diet constituents that may play an influential role in lessening the incidence of colorectal cancer incidence rates. Recently, it was reported that soy-based food products have cancer-fighting properties (Gong Yang et al., 2009). This was revealed where a large cohort study involving 68 412 cancer and diabetes-free women was conducted in the period between 1997-2000. Here, although the study period was less compared to the earlier study, a follow-up was implicated for two years between 2000 and 2002 (Gong Yang et al., 2009). The experimental design of this study is reliable as it involved a questionnaire on 11 soy food items. This strategy could better enable the collection of data on the efficacy of a range of soy products. As such, the article is having scientific cogency in validating the hypothesis that intake of soy and certain soy constituents may reduce the risk of colorectal cancer in women (Gong Yang et al., 2009). Further, in order to avoid the role of confounding parameters, the study group has excluded exogenous hormones on the effect of soy or soy isoflavone intake and in turn included potential effect modification by age, BMI, physical activity, menopausal status, other dietary factors such as intake of red meat, fruits and vegetables, fiber, calcium, and folic acid, as well as tumor anatomic subsite (colon versus rectum) (Gong Yang et al., 2009). This study has obtained significant (95 % confidence interval) results that indicated that soy could reduce the incidence of cancer. The experimental design is in agreement with the findings obtained and also supports the earlier study on dietary patterns with regard to the sample size. Hence, the consumption of soy may be largely recommended. The above-mentioned studies have better implications for modernizing the cancer treatment strategies and may need to be implemented in an evidence-based approach.
References
- Emmanuelle Kesse, Françoise Clavel-Chapelon, Marie-Christine Boutron-Ruault.(2006).Dietary patterns and risk of colorectal tumors: a cohort of French women of the National Education System (E3N).Am J Epidemiol,164,1085–1093.
- Gong Yang, Xiao-Ou Shu, Honglan Li, Wong-Ho Chow, Hui Cai, Xianglan Zhang, Yu-Tang
- Gao, and Wei Zheng (2009).Prospective Cohort Study of Soy Food Intake and Colorectal Cancer Risk in Women. Am J Clin Nutr.89, 577–583.