• Evaluation of the dietary zinc association with Gallstone Disease in women: a case-control study
  • Moloud Ghorbani,1,*
    1. Department of Community Nutrition, Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz. Iran


  • Introduction: Gallstone disease (GD) is a common health problem associated with the gastrointestinal tract. Considering that diet has been recognized as an amendable risk factor for GD, this study was performed to define the association between dietary zinc intake with GD risk among Iranian female patients.
  • Methods: This case-control study was conducted among women including 75 patients with GD and 75 healthy controls in the Gastroenterology and Hepatology clinic of Taleghani Hospital in Tehran, Iran from October 2020 to March 2021. A validated, semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire was used to evaluate the usual intake of participants. The Nutritionist IV software that was upgraded for Iranian foods was used to assess the registered foods. To find the best predictors of GD, multivariate logistic regression was used. This study was approved by the Ethical Committee of the Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran (research ethics number: IR.TBZMED.REC.1398.1202).
  • Results: The results of the analysis showed an inverse significant association between dietary zinc intake (odds ratio: 0.75; 95% confidence interval: 0.58–0.98; P=0.036) with GD. No significant association was observed between other dietary minerals and GD.
  • Conclusion: Present results suggested that higher dietary zinc was associated with a lower risk of GD. To support these findings more studies are required.
  • Keywords: Gallstone disease, Common bile duct stone, Dietary zinc