Nutrition Support Project

Multiethnic Cohort Study (MEC)

The MEC is a large epidemiological study which follows over 215,000 residents of Hawaiʻi and Los Angeles for development of cancer and other chronic diseases. The study includes men and women of five ethnic groups: Japanese Americans, Native Hawaiians, African Americans, Latinos, and whites.

The NSSR provided support for the food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) used to assess dietary exposures among the participants of the Multiethnic Cohort. In addition to the extensive availability of multiple foods in the FFQ, these dietary components have been used to derive hypothetical dietary patterns as part of the NCI originated Dietary Patterns Methods Project. Available to researchers are the Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-2010), Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015), the Alternative HEI-2010 (AHEI-2010), the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), and the alternate Mediterranean diet (aMED). Multiple studies have used the MEC data to explore dietary exposures and disease risk.

Examples of manuscripts from MEC and other studies using the MEC (e.g., Obesity Study):

High-quality diets are Associated with reduced risk of hepatocellular carcinoma and chronic liver disease: The Multiethnic Cohort. Bogumil D, Park SY, Le Marchand L, Haiman CA, Wilkens LR, Boushey CJ, Setiawan VW. Hepatol Commun. 2019 Jan 31;3(3):437-447. doi: 10.1002/hep4.1313. eCollection 2019 Mar. PMID:30859154

Alcohol intake and colorectal cancer risk in the Multiethnic Cohort Study. Park SY, Wilkens LR, Setiawan VW, Monroe KR, Haiman CA, Le Marchand L. Am J Epidemiol. 2019 Jan 1;188(1):67-76. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwy208.PMID:30239578

Testing the predictive validity of the Healthy Eating Index-2015 in the Multiethnic Cohort: Is the score associated with a reduced risk of all-cause and cause-xpecific mortality? Panizza CE, Shvetsov YB, Harmon BE, Wilkens LR, Le Marchand L, Haiman C, Reedy J, Boushey CJ. Nutrients. 2018 Apr 5;10(4):452. doi: 10.3390/nu10040452. PMID: 29621192

Changes in diet quality and body weight over 10 years: the Multiethnic Cohort Study. Kang M, Boushey CJ, Shvetsov YB, Setiawan VW, Paik HY, Wilkens LR, Le Marchand L, Park SY. Br J Nutr. 2021 Jan 14:1-23. doi: 10.1017/S000711452100012X. Online ahead of print. PMID: 33441193

Diet quality and breast cancer incidence in the Multiethnic Cohort. Dela Cruz R, Park SY, Shvetsov YB, Boushey CJ, Monroe KR, Le Marchand L, Maskarinec G. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2020 Dec;74(12):1743-1747. doi: 10.1038/s41430-020-0627-2. Epub 2020 Apr 14. PMID: 32286

Changes in diet quality over 10 years are associated with baseline sociodemographic and lifestyle factors in the Multiethnic Cohort Study. Park SY, Shvetsov YB, Kang M, Setiawan VW, Wilkens LR, Le Marchand L, Boushey CJ. J Nutr. 2020 Jul 1;150(7):1880-1888. doi: 10.1093/jn/nxaa102. PMID: 32338763

Diet quality association with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease by cirrhosis ctatus: The Multiethnic Cohort. Park SY, Noureddin M, Boushey C, Wilkens LR, Setiawan VW. Curr Dev Nutr. 2020 Feb 20;4(3):nzaa024. doi: 10.1093/cdn/nzaa024. eCollection 2020 Mar. PMID: 32190810