Low vegetable intake is strongly associated with venous thromboembolism in Thai population

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated a much higher incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) among Asian patients compared with previous studies. This study aims to determine dietary and behavioral factors that may have contributed to this increase. A case-control study was conducted. Cases were objectively confirmed VTE between 2006 and 2009 at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital. Patients with underlying cancer, antiphospholipid syndrome and arterial thrombosis were excluded. Controls were age and sex-matched healthy volunteers. Food consumption was assessed using a food frequency questionnaire modified from the Thailand National Health Examination Survey III previously validated in the Thai population. There were 97 cases and 195 controls. The mean age was 54.6 years and 70% were women. VTE patients consumed significantly less vegetable, fish and spicy food compared with normal individuals with an odds ratio (OR) for venous thrombosis of 3.74 [95% confidence interval (CI) 2.24-6.26, P < 0.001], 2.05 (95% CI 1.24-3.41, P = 0.005) and 2.30 (95% CI 1.29-4.11, P = 0.01), respectively. Additionally, thrombosis was associated with overweight (OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.21-3.62, P = 0.002), obesity (OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.46-6.74, P = 0.001) and estrogen uses (OR 3.7, 95% CI 1.05-13.2, P = 0.02), but not with smoking or lack of exercise. A multivariate analysis showed that low vegetable consumption (OR 3.74, 95% CI 1.85-7.55, P < 0.001), female hormones (OR 5.80, 95% CI 1.51-22.22, P = 0.011) and body mass index (BMI, P = 0.048) were independently associated with VTE. Low vegetable intake, hormonal use and high BMI are the risk factors for noncancer-related VTE in Thai population.

Alcohol consumption and venous thromboembolism: friend or foe?

“…Worralurt and Taneepanichskul published a small casecontrol study including 70 women aged 15-49 years who were diagnosed with VTE in King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital (Thailand) between the years 1995 and 2004 (mean age 37 ± 4 years), as well as 140 healthy female patients who attended the gynecological clinic for annual check up during the same period (mean age 36 ± 10 years) [27]. There is no significant difference in the VTE risk between subjects reporting any type of alcohol consumption and in those reporting no intake (OR 0.9, 95 % CI 0.47-1.65).…”

Role of Obesity in the Etiology of Deep Vein Thrombosis and Pulmonary Embolism: Current Epidemiological Insights

“…Lifestyle factors such as diet and physical activity may also influence the relation between obesity and venous thrombosis. However, most, but not all, 86,87 studies have reported only a weak 88 or no association [89][90][91] between diet and venous thrombosis, also within obese subjects. 89 Current evidence on physical activity and venous thrombosis is not consistent.…”

Red meat, processed meat and the risk of venous thromboembolism: Friend or foe?

“…Due to the outcome of an earlier study published by Steffen et al in 2007 [16], a large consensus has been reached that lower consumption of red and processed meat would be advisable for reducing the risk of VTE, a notion that was also officially endorsed by some recommendations [7,25]. Additional studies were then published, which have partially or completely contradicted this previous evidence [17][18][19][20][21][22]. Unlike CVD and colorectal cancer, the results of this critical review of the current scientific literature shows that whether or not a pathophysiological link may exist between venous thrombosis and red or processed meat consumption, this should be definitely weak at best.…”

“…Therefore, one major limitation for analyzing data available in the current scientific literature is represented by the heterogeneity of the definitions of "meat" used across different studies, which makes it impossible the use of a meta-analytic approach for pooling data. More specifically, no clear indication was provided on the types of meat included under the category of "red and processed meat" in the vast majority of studies reviewed in this article [16][17][18][19][20][21], whereas one study only included moderate to high fat meat products and dairy products in the component "meat" [22].…”

“…In a following case-control study including 97 patients with a diagnosis of VTE and 195 matched controls [18], Bhoopat et al failed to find any significant association between quartiles of all types of meat intake and venous thrombosis. Compared to the highest quartile of meat intake, the odds ratio (OR) for VTE was 0.69 (95% CI, 0.38-1.24; p = 0.169) in the third quartile, 0.97 (95% CI, 0.60-1.58; p = 0.234) in the second quartile and 0.92 (95% CI, 0.54-1.55; p = 0.664) in the lowest quartile.…”