Pickled Food and Risk of Gastric Cancer—a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of English and Chinese Literature

Abstract

Experiments and ecological studies have shown a higher incidence of stomach cancer in connection to the East Asian practice o f
eating pickled veggies. The current data was evaluated by a meta-analysis of epidemiologic observational studies. We discovered 60
papers, 50 of which were case-control studies and 10 of which were prospective, after searching the databases of China National
Knowledge Infrastructure, Vip Chinese Periodical, and PubMed. Eleven research compared people who regularly ate pickled
vegetables and foods to those who did not, while forty-nine studies compared people whose consumption of pickled vegetables and
foods was the lowest recorded. We used random-effects models to generate the pooled findings. According to the results, out of the
case-control studies, 30 shown a significantly higher risk and 1 demonstrated a significantly lower risk. Two prospective studies
demonstrated a statistically significant increase in risk, whereas no such studies demonstrated a statistically significant r eduction.
Overall, the relationship had an OR of 1.52 (95% CI: 1.37-1.68), case-control had an OR of 1.56 (1.39-1.75), and cohort studies had an
OR of 1.32 (1.10-1.59). The odds ratio (OR) (95% CI) for Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and other nations' research was 1.89 (1.29-2.77),
1.86 (1.61-2.15), 1.16 (1.04-1.29), and 1.14 (0.96-1.35), respectively. When looking at both the overall and subgroup data, there was a
lot of variation. Publication bias was not strongly shown. Conclusion: Consumption of pickled vegetab les and foods may be linked to a
50% increased risk of stomach cancer, with perhaps larger connections in Korea and China. Relevance: In densely populated reg ions
where stomach cancer is common, this study's findings may point the way towards strategies to lower the risk of the disease.