Omission of breakfast and risk of gastric cancer in Mexico

<Abstract>AIM: To investigate factors associated with gastric cancer (GC) in the Mexican population using a validated questionnaire. METHODS: We designed and validated in Spanish a Questionnaire to Find Factors Associated with Diseases of the Digestive Tract using GC as a model. A crosssectional study using 49 subjects, with confirmed histopathological GC diagnosis, and 162 individuals without GC participated. Odds ratio and 95% CIs were estimated in univariate and multivariate analysis adjusted for possible confounding factors. In order to match agegroups, a multivariate sub-analysis was performed in subjects ≥ 39 years of age and in females and males separately. RESULTS: In the univariate analysis, we found an association between GC and education to primary level or below, low socioeconomic status, the use of dental prostheses, omission of breakfast, consumption of very hot food and drink, addition of salt to prepared foods, consumption of salt-preserved foods and the pattern of alcohol consumption. We found protection against GC associated with the use of mouthwash, food refrigeration and regular consumption of fruit and vegetables. In the multivariate sub-analysis with subjects of ≥ 39 years, the omission of breakfast was identified as a risk factor for GC. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests an association between the omission of breakfast and the failure to refrigerate food with GC in the Mexican population.