High Vegetable and Fruit Diet Intervention in Premenopausal Women with Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia

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Abstract

Objective To examine whether diet intervention can promote increased vegetable and fruit intake, as reflected in increased plasma carotenoid and decreased plasma total homocysteine concentrations, in premenopausal women with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, a precancerous condition.

Design Randomized controlled diet intervention study. Subjects Fifty-three free-living premenopausal women who had been diagnosed with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, were randomly assigned to an intervention (n=27) or a control (n=26) group.

Intervention Individualized dietary counseling to increase vegetable and fruit intake.

Main outcome measures Diet was assessed by food frequency questionnaire. Plasma carotenoids and total homocysteine were measured at enrollment and at 6 months follow up.

Analysis Associations between baseline plasma concentrations of carotenoids and homocysteine and influencing factors were examined with multiple regression analysis. Repeated measures analysis of variance was used to test for group by time effects in these plasma concentrations. Plasma carotenoids at baseline and 6 months in the study groups, and differences in homocysteine concentrations from baseline to 6 months, were compared with independent sample t tests.

Results Repeated measures analysis of variance showed significant group by time effects (P<.01) in plasma carotenoid and homocysteine concentrations. In the intervention group, total plasma carotenoids increased by an average of 91%, from 2.04±0.13 (mean±standard error of the mean) to 3.90±0.56 μmol/L and plasma total homocysteine was reduced by 11%, from 9.01±0.40 to 8.10±0.44 μmol/L (P<.003). Neither changed significantly in the control group.

Applications Individualized dietary counseling can effectively promote increased vegetable and fruit intake in premenopausal women. This dietary pattern may reduce risk for cancer and other chronic diseases and also promote an improvement in folate status. J Am Diet Assoc. 2001:101;1167–1174.

Section snippets

Subjects

This study was part of a larger project examining whether a diet high in vegetables and fruit, which are rich in carotenoids, can promote a significantly increased rate of regression of CIN I or II in premenopausal women. Procedures for this study were approved by the Human Subjects Committee of the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine.

For the trial, women identified as having abnormal Pap smears were recruited from primary care and gynecology medical practices. Inclusion

Results

Subjects were 53 women aged 27.8±16.0 years (mean±standard deviation, range 19–45 years); 19 (36%) were 19 to 24 years, 27 (51%) were 25 to 34 years, and 7 (13%) were 35 years or older. Self-reported ethnicity was distributed as: 35 (66%) were white, 6 (11%) were Asian-American, 6 (11%) were African-American, 4 (8%) were Hispanic, and 2 (4%) were from other ethnic groups, distributed proportionately across the study groups. Sixty percent had been diagnosed with CIN I and 40% percent with CIN

Discussion

Results from this study demonstrate that diet intervention can effectively promote increased vegetable and fruit intake in premenopausal women with cervical dysplasia, reflected in a substantial increase in plasma carotenoid and a reduction in plasma total homocysteine concentrations. The intervention improved status for both carotenoids and folate in the target population and is a first step toward testing whether diet intervention can increase the regression rate of CIN.

At enrollment,

Applications

An individualized diet counseling intervention that emphasizes self management and self regulation is readily applicable for dietetics professionals. With this approach, counseling interactions involve setting subgoals and reviewing progress, and guidance is adjusted to accommodate the preferences and daily activity patterns of the client. Guiding clients as they select and reach specific behavioral targets requires regular and ongoing feedback, which can be facilitated by telephone and

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