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Population study: followed a group

30-year study of 46,551 adults: meat had no clear link to bowel cancer death

Shaukat and colleagues · Digestive diseases and sciences · 2017

Original title: BMI Is a Risk Factor for Colorectal Cancer Mortality.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

No difference

Higher BMI raised bowel cancer death risk (HR 1.03; 95% CI 1.00-1.05). Intakes of meats were not associated with bowel cancer death.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Population study: followed a group
Who or what was studied
46,551 people · Adults aged 50 to 80 in a Minnesota bowel cancer screening trial, followed 30 years
What was tested
Diet and lifestyle habits, including meat intake, and later death from bowel cancer
What it measured
The question itself: cancer, heart disease and death
Who has a stake
No disclosure in PubMed
No disclosure in PubMed; funded by US government sources.
Journal
Digestive diseases and sciences, 2017
Source
PubMed record 28733869. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • –Shows a link, not a cause: people chose their own habits, and other differences between them may explain the result.
  • ✓Followed people over time, so habits were recorded before the outcome happened.
  • ✓Large: 46,551 people.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: cancer, heart disease and death.
  • •The PubMed record has no conflict-of-interest statement.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: cancer and heart disease

    0

    Not done yet. This is the step that would answer the question.

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    6

    2 benefit, 4 harm

  4. Population studies

    12

    1 benefit, 2 mixed, 1 no difference, 8 harm

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does red meat raise cancer and heart disease risk?”

Linked to higher risk, especially processed meat.

Confidence: low. Based on 30 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 11 papers on the same step: 1 benefit, 2 mixed, 8 harm. This one found no difference. It differs from most of them.

  • Counted on the ladder, but not quoted in the page’s main findings.

Other papers on the same step

See all 30 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The two reads agreed on every checked field. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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