Meat Consumption and the Risk of Barrett's Esophagus in a Large Dutch Cohort

Background: Increasing meat intake and its possible role in the development of esophageal adenocarcinoma raises the question whether meat consumption is associated with the premalignant lesion, Barrett's esophagus. Methods: Associations between the risk of Barrett's esophagus and meat consumption, intake of N-nitrosodimethylamine, nitrite, and heme iron were examined in the Netherlands Cohort Study among 120,852 subjects aged 55 to 69 years in 1986. Exposure was measured on the basis of a 150-item food frequency questionnaire. After 16.3 years of follow-up, 447 Barrett's esophagus cases with specialized intestinal metaplasia and 3,919 subcohort members were analyzed in a case-cohort design. Results: There was no association of any of the examined exposures with Barrett's risk in men or women. Results were similar in age-adjusted and fully adjusted models and in models excluding the first two years of follow-up. Conclusions: Our results do not support a role of meat consumption and N-nitrosation related factors in the development of Barrett's esophagus. Impact: The possible causal association between red meat intake and esophageal adenocarcinoma is unlikely to be mediated by mechanisms through the development of Barrett's esophagus.