Abstract
Epidemiological features of esophageal cancer (EC), as well as their associations with potential influencing factors in a city, have seldom been seldom explored on a fine scale. The EC death cases in Guangzhou city during 2012−2017 were collected to describe the epidemiological characteristics such as EC mortality rate (ECMR) and health-seeking behaviors of deaths. Potential influencing factors, including socioeconomic conditions (population density, gross domestic product density), medical resources, and ageing degree were also gathered for exploring their relationships with the epidemiological characteristics of EC. A total of 2,409 EC deaths were reported during 2012−2017 in Guangzhou with an age-standardized ECMR of 3.18/105. The prevalence of EC in Guangzhou was spatially featured and was divided into three regions with obvious differentiated ECMR (ECMR of 6.41/105 in region A, ECMR of 5.51/105 in region B, ECMR of 2.56/105 in region C). The street/town-level ECMR was spatially clustered in Guangzhou city, especially two clusters of streets/towns with high ECMR were highlighted in region A and B respectively. Meanwhile, demographic features including gender gap, death age, temporal interval between diagnosis and death, health-seeking behaviors were remarkably different among the three regions. Moreover, health-seeking behaviors (e.g., the proportion of hospital deaths) of the EC deaths were obviously influenced by medical institution occupancy rate and socioeconomic conditions at street/town level. In addition, the street/town-level ECMR was significantly associated with ageing degree across Guangzhou city (r = 0.466, p < 0.01), especially in region A (r = 0.565, p < 0.01). In contrast, the ECMR in region B was closely related to population density (r = −0.524, p < 0.01) and gross domestic product density (r = −0.511, p < 0.01) when the ageing degree was controlled, while these associations were weak in region C. The epidemiological characteristics of EC in Guangzhou city were spatially featured and potentially associated with socioeconomic conditions, medical resources and ageing degree on a fine scale across Guangzhou city. This study could provide scientific basis for local authorities to implement more targeted EC interventions.
Highlights
Esophageal cancer (EC) is a worldwide fatal malignant tumor and causes about 0.5 million deaths in 2018 [1]
The annual number of EC deaths presented a slightly ascending trend (Figure 2), the spatial distribution of EC deaths remained stable in each year (Figure S1)
Most death cases were clustered in the central region of Guangzhou city, and the southern part was accompanied with a relatively higher density of EC deaths while the northern half with sparsely distributed EC death cases (Figure 3a,b)
Summary
Esophageal cancer (EC) is a worldwide fatal malignant tumor and causes about 0.5 million deaths in 2018 [1]. As a common digestive tract malignant tumor, EC is closely associated with genetic, environmental, and behavioral risk factors [5,6,7]. The occurrence of EC increases along with aging [5], and the risk of developing EC is strongly associated with the positive family history of this disease [6]. Personal lifestyle choices, like smoking, heavy drinking, poor oral health, unhealthy diet (hot/salty/pickled food, low consumption of fruits and vegetables, etc.) pose important effects on this disease [10,11,12,13,14,15]. Evidences support that EC prevalence tend to be related with some socioeconomic conditions including the patients’ income level, occupation, and accessibility of medical resources [16,17,18,19]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
