The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: to analyse the possible interaction between tobacco consumption and fruit intake.

Methods: We analyze data from a hospital-based case-control study on lung cancer including 295 histologically confirmed cases and 322 controls. Controls were individuals attending the hospital for trivial surgery. There was a minimum age limit of 35 years and sampling was carried out a sex-frequency basis. Three categories of fruit intake and another 3 of tobacco habit were created yielding 9 categories in total. The analysis was performed with logistic regression taking the status of case or control as the dependent variable. The results were adjusted for age, sex, and occupation.

Results: Fruit consumption does not appear to decrease the risk of lung cancer in non smokers, light-moderate smokers or heavy smokers. Although non-smokers registered an OR of 0.54, this risk did not prove significant; and smokers, whether light-to-moderate or heavy, showed a higher risk of suffering lung cancer, which was not modified by greater or lesser consumption of fruit. The risk of lung cancer for those light-moderate smokers consuming fruit less than once a week was 2,02 (CI 95% 0,49-8,27) and for those consuming fruit more than once per day was 2,51 (CI% 0,73-8,58). The risk of lung cancer for heavy smokers consuming fruit less than once per week was 7,35 (CI% 1,81-29,75) and for those consuming fruit more than once per day was 7,98 (CI% 2,28-27,94).