An Ecologic Study on Nutrient Intake and Gastric Cancer Mortality : An Analysis Based on a Nutrition Survey Using Three-days Weighed Food Records

Abstract

We studied the geographic correlation between nutrient consumption and the gastric cancer mortality across the five Public Health Center districts (Ninohe, Iwate; Yokote, Akita; Katsushika-kita, Tokyo; Saku, Nagano ; Ishikawa, Okinawa). In the winter of 1989-1991, three-days weighed food records were collected from 207 volunteered men and 165 spouses of the men sampled from the five districts. The average daily consumption of 16 selected nutrients were computed, and the correlation of these values with the age-adjusted mortality rates from gastric cancer were investigated. Partial rank correlation coefficients adjusted for sex were 0.6293, 0.5354, -0.8926, -0.5775, -0.4542 for thiamin, sodium, carotene, calcium, retinol, respectively. Among these nutrients, the percentage contribution of the interpopulation to total variance for sodium intake was found to be relatively great. These results suggest that although geographical variation in gastric cancer mortality in Japan might be accounted for by the regional differences in consumption of several nutrients, this nutrient-gastric cancer association may be more likely for sodium than for other nutrients.