A Prospective Study of Dietary Fiber Types and Symptomatic Diverticular Disease in Men

Manuscript received 27 May 1997. Initial reviews completed 2 July 1997. Revision accepted 19 December 1997.

Walid H. Aldoori^*, , Edward L. Giovannucci^{*, **,} , Helaine R H. Rockett^**, Laura Sampson^*, Eric B. Rimm^*, , and and Walter C. Willett^{*, , **}

Departments of ^* Nutrition and  Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health and ^** Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02115

To examine prospectively dietary fiber calculated from food composition values based on analytic techniques and specific dietary fiber types in relation to risk of diverticular disease, we analyzed data from a prospective cohort of 43,881 U.S. male health professionals 40-75 y of age at base line; subjects were free of diagnosed diverticular disease, colon or rectal polyps, ulcerative colitis and cancer. The insoluble component of fiber was inversely associated with risk of diverticular disease relative risk (RR) = 0.63, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.44-0.91, P for trend = 0.02, and this association was particularly strong for cellulose (RR = 0.52, 95% CI, 0.36-0.75, P for trend = 0.002). The association between diverticular disease and total dietary fiber intake calculated from the AOACstandards method was not appreciably different from results using the Southgate or Englyst method [for AOAC method, RR = 0.60, 95% CI, 0.41-0.87; for Southgate method, RR = 0.61, 95% CI, 0.42-0.88; for Englyst method, RR = 0.60, 95% CI, 0.42-0.87, for the highest quintiles]. Our findings provide evidence for the hypothesis that a diet high in dietary fiber decreases the risk of diverticular disease, and this result was not sensitive to the use of different analytic techniques to define dietary fiber. Our findings suggest that the insoluble component of fiber was significantly associated with a decreased risk of diverticular disease, and this inverse association was particularly strong for cellulose.

The Journal of Nutrition Vol. 128 No. 4 April 1998, pp. 714-719
Copyright ©1998 by the American Society for Nutritional Sciences

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