Oskarsson V, et al. – This study investigated the impact of overall diet quality on the natural history of non–gallstone–associated acute pancreatitis. Findings were indicative of no clear link between overall diet quality and risk of recurrent and progressive pancreatic disease.

Methods

• A prospective study was performed in 386 individuals (born 1914–1952), all of whom had an incident diagnosis of non-gallstone-related acute pancreatitis in the Swedish National Patient Register between 1998 and 2013.
• Participants were already enrolled in two population-based cohorts and had completed a food frequency questionnaire in 1997.
• Researchers calculated overall diet quality using a recommended food score (RFS), which was based on 25 food items.
• They conducted post-diagnosis follow-up throughout 2014 for recurrence of acute pancreatitis and/or progression to chronic pancreatic disease (including cancer).
• They also estimated hazard ratios using Cox models.

Results

• Findings demonstrated that during 1859 person-years of follow-up, 23.3% of the study population (n = 90) developed recurrent or progressive pancreatic disease.
• Researchers observed an inverse association between the RFS and risk of recurrent and progressive pancreatic disease after adjustment for age and sex (hazard ratio for each 2-unit increase 0.90, 95% confidence interval 0.81–1.01) (P_{overall association} = 0.06).
• However, data highlighted that the link became weaker and was not statistically significant after adjustment for other potential confounders, including alcohol drinking and cigarette smoking (P_{overall association} = 0.27).