Fruit and vegetable consumption and risk of cholecystectomy: a prospective cohort study of women and men

PURPOSE: Epidemiologic data on whether consumption of fruit and vegetables (FVs) decreases the risk of gallstone disease are sparse. Therefore, we examined the association between FV consumption and the 14-year risk of symptomatic gallstone disease (defined as occurrence of cholecystectomy) in a large group of middle-aged and elderly persons. METHODS: Data from two population-based cohorts were used, which included 74,554 men and women (born 1914–1952). Participants filled in a food frequency questionnaire in the late fall of 1997 and were followed up for cholecystectomy between 1998 and 2011 via linkage to the Swedish Patient Register. Cox regression models were used to obtain hazard ratios (HRs). RESULTS: During 939,715 person-years of follow-up, 2120 participants underwent a cholecystectomy (1120 women and 1000 men). An inverse association between FV consumption and risk of cholecystectomy was observed in age- and sex-adjusted analyses (P (trend) = .036) but not in confounder-adjusted analyses (P (trend) = .43). The multivariable-adjusted HR was 0.95 (95 % CI 0.83–1.08) for the highest compared with the lowest sex-specific quartile of FV consumption. There was no evidence of interactions with age (P = .25) or sex (P = .72) in analyses pooled by sex. However, an age-by-FV consumption interaction was observed in separate analyses of women (P = .010), with decreased HRs of cholecystectomy for ages up to 60 years. CONCLUSIONS: This study supports an inverse association between FV consumption and risk cholecystectomy in women, although the association was restricted to women aged 48–60 years. In contrast, the study does not support an association in men. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00394-016-1298-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.