Methods: Data were collected through standardized questionnaires, blood draw, and physical examinations, during an unmatched case-control study (June 2009-April 2011). Main eligibility criteria were: age >12, at least 2 idiopathic RAS episodes in the 6 months prior to screening, fasting for >5 hours, no smoking, alcohol, or certain medications in past 24 hrs. Questionnaire items included RAS history, stress, and diet in past 7 days. We compared the diet in active (RAS onset <72 hours) and inactive subjects (no RAS in the 5 days before or after a visit) vs. controls. Data were stored in REDCap and analyzed using SAS v9.2 and the Mantel-Haenszel test with 2-sided alpha=0.05.
Results: Data for 100 subjects (46 controls, 25 inactive, and 29 active, 56% female, 59% white, age 18-50) showed no difference in the intake of soda, (p=0.08), chocolate (p=0.94), canned foods (p=0.56), alcoholic beverages (p=0.95), mineral supplements (p=0.65), rice, bread and pasta (p=0.91), hot foods and drinks (p=0.19), sour/acidic foods (p=0.76), and fruits and vegetables (p=0.71) between the control, inactive, and active groups. There was a significant difference for sugar intake (p=0.01), which was lowest in controls (2.7) vs. both inactive (3.4; p=0.07) and active (3.2; p=0.04) cases. There was no sugar intake difference between inactive and active cases (p=0.26).
Conclusions: Daily sugar intake 7 days before a visit was significantly higher in RAS cases than in controls. These findings are consistent with our prior study. Further investigations are needed to understand this association.
Keywords: Epidemiology, Oral medicine, Oral mucosa and Wound healing