Epidemiology: Open Access

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Assessment of Risk Factors Correlated with Age-Adjusted Mortality by Region for Prostate Cancer in Japan: An Epidemiological Study

Takuya Nagano, Akihiko Hoshi

Introduction: Previous studies have suggested that smoking and drinking alcohol are prostate cancer risks. However, how regional unevenness of radiation oncologists/urologists in Japan or other risk factors including social background correlate with age-adjusted mortality of prostate cancer remain unknown.

Methods: In addition to known factors like smoking, we examined whether various other factors, such as the regional unevenness of radiotherapists/urologists, correlated with age-adjusted mortality rate (AAMR) for prostate cancer by prefecture. Statistical data were obtained from Annual Report of Hospital-Based Cancer Registries, Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions and etc. We used the 10-year averages of AAMR from 2009 to 2018 in each prefecture to determine mortality rates.

Results: There was no correlation between the number of radiation oncologists/urologists per 100,000 and the 10-year averages of AAMR by prefecture in Japan. On the other hand, smoking rates and drinking per capita were correlated, respectively (P=0.0002 and 0.0008).

Conclusion: The current study of statistics by prefecture in Japan also suggests that factors such as smoking and drinking alcohol are correlated with the risk of prostate cancer mortality. On the other hand, regional unevenness of radiation oncologists did not correlate. These results suggest that there is validity in this study design of analyzing factors of risk of prostate cancer mortality. And the study design was suggested to be useful for comparing various patient background factors.