Proper Diet and Lifestyle as Cancer Prevention Strategies - Research Proposal Example

Research Proposal: Proper Diet and Lifestyle as Cancer Prevention Strategies February Specific Aims According to the World Health Organization (WHO) (2014), cancers dominantly represent some of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality for many countries, with around 14 million new cases and 8.2 million dying from cancer in 2012. Cancer can have genetic causes, but environmental factors are also influential variables that could increase cancer risks. The WHO (2014) asserted that around 30% of people dying from cancer do so because of these five behavioral and dietary risks: “high body mass index, low fruit and vegetable intake, lack of physical activity, tobacco use, [and] alcohol use.” These risks are external factors that can be managed, which underline the importance of diet and physical activity to reducing cancer risks. Though results for the past few decades are mixed, several studies suggested that having the proper diet and lifestyle can prevent or even cure a number of chronic diseases, including different types of cancer (Giovannucci et al., 2002; Norat et al., 2005; Wallace t al., 2009). By “proper diet,” this usually refers to lower fat and red meat intake and higher vegetable and fruit consumption (Heidemann et al., 2008). Western diet, on the opposite, has been regarded as an unhealthy diet because it is usually high in animal product, sugar, and fat consumption and low in dietary fiber, and it has been correlated to higher cancer risk (Key et al., 2002; Stoll et al., 1998). Moreover, by “lifestyle,” this study pertains to the way that people live, including management of alcohol consumption and smoking practices, as well as physical activity levels, life satisfaction with interpersonal relationships, and sleeping habits. This research intends to know if there is a “proper” diet and lifestyle that may reduce cancer risks. It proposes that healthy living can prevent cancer risks, especially for those who have high cancer risks due to family history and genetic profiles. By cancer, this covers all cancer types, although this study recognizes that certain diets and lifestyles may be more effective for some kinds of cancers and that physical, genetic, and psychological variables can also impact, not only the successful (i.e. consistent and disciplined) adoption of healthy lifestyles and diets, but also the effectiveness of a healthy living approach. The target goals of the proposed research are the following: (1) To determine if a proper diet can reduce cancer risks, and (2) To identify if moderate physical activity can decrease cancer risks. Essentially, this study aims to solve a specific problem which is cancer, by proposing a holistic lifestyle approach to cancer prevention, and to suggest an alternative approach to preventing cancer that is not centered on drinking medicine, but on changing people’s thinking about their diets and living practices. Proper diet for this paper refers to decreasing or increasing certain food types. It consists of high consumption of vegetables and fruits, low consumption of sugar and fatty food, low intake of processed food, including dairy products, zero to low consumption of alcohol, and not smoking. Proper lifestyle refers to physical activity of at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise or physical activity that reaches the same calories burnt as moderate exercise and sleeping at least six hours each day, as well as having positive interpersonal relationships. Research Strategy (Significance, Innovation and Approach) Significance The importance of this study is connected to the global problem of rising cancer risks (WHO, 2014), especially when many developing countries are embracing and following an unhealthy Western diet that is high on sugar, fats, and calories and low in dietary fiber (Popkin et al., 2012). Rising cancer risks must be stemmed because of related morbidity and mortality. In other words, to stop cancer is to save lives. Furthermore, cancer is expensive chronic disease due to hospitalization expenses and costs of other medical services. To prevent cancer will reduce personal and national health care costs. This proposal intends to do research on diets and lifestyles that can improve people’s ability to fight cancer through reducing cancer risks. It will improve scientific knowledge by showing that certain ways of nutrition and living can stave off cancer. It can also enhance clinical practice in child health and human development, if doctors and related health care institutions or organizations can promote and inculcate a holistic health mindset in communities and schools that may reduce cancer risks, a mindset that should begin with parents and other adults and be promoted to children. Aside from curbing cancer risks, this study presents preventative strategies that can be followed even by the poorest, at-risk people, provided that they can also get access to needed health care education and economic resources. Fundamentally, this study wants to help reduce the socioeconomic and health gap by ensuring that the poor and at-risk people (who are prone to obesity, which may increase cancer risk) (Swinburn et al, 2011) can also easily follow cancer prevention strategies, since they are not emphasizing the consumption of expensive supplements or other food, but relying on indigenous vegetables and fruits, for instance, to help reduce cancer risks. The main concept is to reject the thinking that Western diet is symbolic social status that should be aspired. It advocates the thinking that a simpler diet and lifestyle that highlight healthy food (e.g. less processed food and fast food) and regular physical activity is actually better than the Western diet that the media shows in its advertisements as representative of a good life, or, a “progressing” life. Being a regular or heavy consumer of “Big Food,” which pertains to “multinational food and beverage companies with huge and concentrated market power” (Stuckler & Nestle, 2012) is adverse to health and can increase cancer risks (Lucan et al., 2010). Innovation This study challenges current research because many review and experimental studies involve only certain aspects of diet or physical activity, or a combination of both, but not proper diet, physical activity, and sleep (Giovannucci et al., 2008). This proposal wants to focus on changing how people see food and their ways of life, so that they can make appropriate changes that can make them healthier and more physically capable of fighting cancer. The novelty of this paper is in its approach in combining different environmental variables that may impact cancer prevention. It is more descriptive than experimental because it will rely on self-reports, but it will also be different than other studies because it recognizes the role of holism in battling cancer risks. It is also different from other research because of the use of mobile/online application that can track food consumed and physical activity. In addition, this study will have an advantage in terms of methodology because it will also improve the validity of questionnaires on diet and lifestyle by including more factors, particularly, sleep, and by using a data adjustment method. Moreover, it will combine a survey method and self-recording monitoring method to improve the validity of self-report measures. At the same time, another innovation is the use of energy-adjusted variables, as Reedy et al. (2010) suggested. This adjustment is essential because of physical differences that can impact energy needs. Reedy et al. (2010) stressed that energy adjustment is important because “energy needs are determined by body size, age, physical activity, and other factors and also because diet quality is of greater interest rather than absolute intakes” (p. 486). Energy adjustment can also decrease measurement error that some studies suffered from, although future research would help understand the role of this method to data analysis better (Reedy et al., 2010, p. 486). Research Approach Data Collection The research design is a prospective cohort study. This is chosen because it has been used in the past studies to determine the correlation between diet and lifestyle factors, on the one hand, and cancer risk, on the other hand (Aune et al., 2011; Boffetta et al., 2010). This data collection strategy will increase convenience for target participants through conducting online/mail communication and data collection methods. The target would be a specific community and college where the researcher resides and studies. The local health government will be contacted to ask for their permission to conduct this study and to contact residents by e-mail or mail. All participants will be sent electronic or paper mail to inform them about the survey and how it intends to help reduce chronic illnesses in the neighborhood. They will also be ensured that the privacy and confidentiality of their information will be safeguarded through passwords for all data and files generated from this study. Cancer would not be specifically mentioned because it may result to unconscious or conscious awareness of this illness that may distort self-reported data. Those who respond would be provided a small amount of compensation for their time, as the data collection will include self-monitoring diet and lifestyle practices for one year. The independent variables pertain to diet and lifestyle factors, while the dependent factor is cancer risk. It is expected that those who follow proper diet and lifestyle have lower cancer risks than those who do not. It is also expected that eating more processed food and dairy products can increase cancer risk. At baseline, participants will receive a mailed general questionnaire that will have questions on demographics, chronic diseases, risk factors for chronic diseases, and number of hours of sleep for every 24 hours (Patel et al., 2004). The questionnaire will also if they are satisfied with their interpersonal relationships, particularly, family, friends, neighborhood, and community. Smoking habit will also be measured through answering a questionnaire where people will be categorized into current, past, and never smoker, and parental history on having diabetes which includes none, one, or both parents (Sluijs et al., 2010, p. 44). Physical activity will be measured through the Cambridge Physical Activity Score. To measure food consumed, the self-administered food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) will be used (Sluijs et al., 2010). Furthermore, since underreporting or overreporting of food consumption can produce higher extraneous variation, the researcher energy will adjust the dietary pattern scores through the residual method (Heidemann et al, 2008). To also decrease random within-person variation and to represent long-term diet, the cumulative averages of the dietary pattern scores will be calculated (Heidemann et al, 2008). In addition, to validate self-report measures, participants will be asked to log in their daily food intake for a week, where once a week, at random days, they will send a picture of their food intake and recorded physical activity to the researcher’s e-mail. This will serve as a food diary record for twelve months. Finally, a secondary research will be done for data interpretation. Research for the past five years will be used to assess the correlation between dietary and lifestyle variables and cancer risks for different groups. Secondary data will also help understand the weaknesses of the study and future directions. Data Analysis Analyses will be done through Cox regression. The proportional hazard assumption for red meat, fish, poultry intake, processed food, and dairy food variables will be done in relation to cancer risk through the likelihood ratio test, and the models will be compared with and without product terms for the these variables (Heidemann et al, 2008). Data will also be stratified by center to control the differences in questionnaire design and other environmental effects (Heidemann et al, 2008). The researcher will also perform stratified analyses to determine if the relationship between dietary and lifestyle patterns and risk of mortality was influenced by age “(3.5 h/wk), smoking status (current smokers versus nonsmokers), or overweight status ( Read More