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Dietary Behavior and Urinary Gallic Acid Concentrations in Older Minority Residents of East Harlem, New York City

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Abstract

In this multidisciplinary study, we explored relationships between demographic factors, dietary habits, and gallic acid, a polyphenolic biomarker that correlates with self-reported dietary behaviors and negatively correlates with the incidence of cancer. Thirty-three (33) participants were recruited from a senior center in East Harlem, New York City, a racially diverse and underserved community. A National Institute of Health (NIH)-validated survey questionnaire was used to gather dietary behavior data, alongside demographic and cancer history information. Urine samples were obtained from participants for analyzing gallic acid content level. All 33 recruited participants completed the survey and 25 of them provided urine samples for gallic acid analysis. Associations between demographic factors and intake of certain foods were observed. Specifically, age was negatively associated with French fries/fried potatoes, cooked dried beans, and tomato soup intake (p < 0.05), and Black/African American race was associated with increased consumption of fruits and vegetables in comparison to Hispanic/Latino ethnicity (p < 0.05). No associations between urinary gallic acid levels and demographic information was observed. However, French fries/fried potatoes intake was significantly associated with urinary gallic acid concentration (p < 0.01). The small sample size limited the execution of meaningful statistical analysis. However, this study provided preliminary findings about the dietary behavior of older adults in East Harlem, New York City, which will serve as a basis for a future larger study to investigate nutrition/dietary education intervention on cancer prevention among diverse elderly residents in New York City.

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Funding

The project described was supported by an Interdisciplinary Research Grant from the City University of New York to O.O. Ogunwobi (PI), M. Yeh (Co-PI), K. Navder (Co-PI), and by the TUFCCC/HC Regional Comprehensive Cancer Health Disparity Partnership award number U54 CA221704(5) from the National Cancer Institute (Contact PIs: O.O. Ogunwobi and G. X. Ma). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Cancer Institute or the National Institute of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Hunter College of The City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Cristina N. Zambrano, Safa Ibrahim & Olorunseun O. Ogunwobi

  2. Hunter College Center for Cancer Health Disparities Research, Hunter College of The City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Cristina N. Zambrano, Cicely Johnson, Safa Ibrahim, Khursheed Navder, Ming-Chin Yeh & Olorunseun O. Ogunwobi

  3. Center for Asian Health, Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Wenyue Lu, Aisha Bhimla, Yin Tan & Grace X. Ma

  4. Nutrition Program, School of Urban Public Health, Hunter College of The City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Maayan Beeber, April Panitz, Khursheed Navder & Ming-Chin Yeh

  5. Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Katarzyna Wyka

  6. Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, Brooklyn, New York, NY, USA

    Marilyn Fraser

Authors
  1. Cristina N. Zambrano
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  2. Cicely Johnson
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  3. Wenyue Lu
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  4. Maayan Beeber
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  8. Marilyn Fraser
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  9. Aisha Bhimla
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  10. Yin Tan
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  11. Khursheed Navder
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  12. Ming-Chin Yeh
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  13. Grace X. Ma
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  14. Olorunseun O. Ogunwobi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Olorunseun O. Ogunwobi.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

The study was approved by the City University of New York’s Institutional Review Board. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Written consent was obtained from all participants in the study.

Animal Studies

This article does not contain any study with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Zambrano, C.N., Johnson, C., Lu, W. et al. Dietary Behavior and Urinary Gallic Acid Concentrations in Older Minority Residents of East Harlem, New York City. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 7, 217–223 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-019-00649-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-019-00649-x

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