Association between meat consumption and incident acute pancreatitis: a prospective cohort study

<i>Background</i>: Previous studies indicated the potential role of consumption of different types of meat in the etiology of acute pancreatitis (AP), but no clear link has been established. This study aimed to investigate the association between consumption of 4 types of meat (processed meat, unprocessed red meat, poultry, and fish) and the risk of incident AP. <i>Materials and methods</i>: We included 489 708 participants from the UK Biobank between 2006 and 2010. A food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was used to document the frequency of four types of meat. Data from validated 24-hour dietary recalls were used to quantify the meat intake and reduce measurement errors. The outcomes of our study were incident AP among participants. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the associations between meat consumption and incident AP were calculated using Cox proportional hazard models. <i>Results</i>: Over a mean (standard deviation) follow-up of 13.2 (2.1) years, 3079 incident AP cases were recorded. We observed that higher consumption of processed meat was associated with a higher risk of incident AP (per 25 g per d: HR: 1.29, 95% CI: 1.12-1.47). In contrast, higher consumption of fish intake was associated with a lower risk of AP (per 25 g per d: HR: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.68-0.89). Replacing one, two, and three servings per week of processed meat with fish per week was associated with a 6% (95% CI: 2%-9%), 11% (95% CI: 4%-17%), and 16% (95% CI: 6%-24%) reduced risk of incident AP. <i>Conclusion</i>: More frequent processed meat consumption was associated with an elevated risk of incident AP, while more frequent fish consumption was associated with a lower risk of incident AP. Our study found that a diet that substitutes fish for processed meat may mitigate the risk of incident AP.