Advisory Committee Chair
Louis B Nabors
Advisory Committee Members
Wendy Demark-Wahnefried
Kathleen Egan
Tim Nagy
Casey Morrow
Robert Oster
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2018
Degree Name by School
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) School of Health Professions
Abstract
Many dietary exposures have weak or null associations with glioma risk. As nutrition can affect growth rate in adolescence, body size throughout the lifespan, and the propensity for Type 2 diabetes, the goal of this project was to examine the relationships between these surrogates of nutritional states and the risk of glioma. The aims of this project were to examine the associations between glioma risk and 1) self-reported body measures; 2) age when full height was attained; 3) and a history of diabetes. To investigate the first aim, 1,111 glioma cases and 1,096 community controls completed a structured interview to report their height and weight at 21 years of age, and weight before glioma diagnosis. An inverse association was found between individuals who reported being underweight at age 21 (BMI < 18.5 kg/m2) glioma risk. To address the second aim, 951 controls and 776 glioma cases who reported their age when full height was attained. Older age at maximal height, regardless of final adult height, was associated with an increased risk of glioma. The final aim was investigated with 1,332 controls and 1,242 glioma cases who reported a positive or negative history of diabetes and age when diagnosed. We observed a lower risk of glioma in persons with diabetes diagnosed in midlife or later. Previous diet studies have not indicated nutrition as a major contributor to glioma risk. However, these results considered together, suggest that nutritional states and lifestyle choices are associated with glioma risk.
Recommended Citation
Little, Rebecca Barnhill, "The Effects Of Body Size, Growth, And History Of Diabetes On Glioma Risk" (2018). All ETDs from UAB. 2305.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/2305