Objective  To examine cancer-related dietary belief and its association with dietary behaviors among urban middle-aged and elderly residents and to provide references for implementing dietary intervention among the population.

  Methods  Using cluster random sampling, we interviewed 2 387 residents aged 40 years and older face-to-face in Hefei city of Anhui province from July to August 2016. We adopted simple summation method to calculate overall score and five dimensional scores of cancer-related dietary belief and conducted analysis of variance (ANOVA) to evaluate differences in those scores among the participants with various dietary behaviors.

  Results  The proportions of the participants reporting consumption frequencies of various kinds of food were as following: 70.9% for eating vegetables 2 times or more per day; 55.6%, 62.3%, and 45.9% for eating fruits, red meat, and coarse grains at least 3 times a week; 23.6% for eating pickled or dried food at least 14 times a month; 6.2% for eating smoked food at least once a month; 4.9% for eating fried food at least 7 times a month; 46.0% for eating leftover food at least 14 times a month; 20.7% for taking too much oil; 16.1% for taking too much salt; and 28.7% for eating garlic every day or every other day, respectively. The average overall cancer-related dietary belief score was 7.90 ± 1.38, and the scores of five-dimensional awareness perceived were 8.14 ± 0.92 for susceptibility, 7.61 ± 1.35 for severity, 7.59 ± 1.15 for validity, 8.60 ± 1.45 for benefit, and 8.59 ± 1.76 for barrier. The overall score of cancer-related dietary belief of the participants differed significantly by age, education level, and occupation (P < 0.001 for all); and the overall score was significantly different among the participants reporting various frequencies for consumptions of fruit, coarse grain, pickled or dried food, leftover food, and garlic (all P < 0.001).

  Conclusion  Cancer-related dietary behaviors need to be improved and cancer-related dietary belief is influenced by dietary behaviors among urban middle-aged and elderly residents in Hefei city.