and its production may offset the detrimental effect of preserved vegetable consumption on risk of cancer incidence and/or mortality. Differently, Fuling preserved vegetables, popular in Sichuan province of China, were made by salting fresh cabbages with more than ten kinds of condiments .
We observed the positive associations were more pronounced among older people and rural residents. It is worth noting that participants who were older or lived in rural areas might preserve vegetables more traditionally, which could be unhealthier, such as Fuling preserved vegetables salted with more than ten kinds of condiments.
The current study is strengthened by the large population size, relatively long follow-up duration, and the large number of deaths from various causes. To our knowledge, it is the first study to examine the association between preserved vegetable consumption and cause-specific mortality. Competing risk from various deaths and adjustment with important non-dietary factors as well as dietary factors were also taken into consideration.
Our study has some limitations. Firstly, the reproducibility of the qualitative FFQ has been validated but we did not estimate the amount of intake in our analysis because only a small subsample of participants reported the amount in the second resurvey. We were not able to check the agreement between self-reported and actual preserved vegetable consumption.