Association of dietary fiber intake with metabolic syndrome among adult cancer survivors: a population-based cross-sectional study

Nutrient intake for adult cancer survivors is of clinical importance for managing metabolic health. Whether dietary fiber intake is associated with metabolic syndrome (MetS) or not in adult cancer survivors is uncertain. We aim to investigate the association between dietary fiber intake and MetS in adult cancer survivors using a population-based cross-sectional study. A study sample of 1301 adult cancer survivors aged more than 20 years from the sixth and seventh Korea Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) from 2013 to 2018 was identified. Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were estimated from multiple logistic regression adjusted for sociodemographic factors, health behavior, and nutritional status. Among 1,301 adult cancer survivors identified from the KNHANES 2013–2018, the mean dietary fiber intake was 28.1 g/day (standard error, 0.54). Compared to the first quintile of dietary fiber intake, the adjusted ORs and 95% CIs for MetS in the second, third, fourth, and fifth quintiles of dietary fiber intake were 0.84 (0.27–2.61), 0.77 (0.16–3.74), 0.55 (0.14–2.22), and 0.26 (0.05–1.39), respectively (p value for trend = 0.0007). Our findings suggest that high dietary fiber intake is marginally associated with reduced odds of MetS in adult cancer survivors.