Correlation between high salt intake and mortality rates for oesophageal and gastric cancers in Henan Province, China.

Abstract

This paper concerns the analysis of the rank correlation between salt quantity sold (SQS) to the Henan inhabitants from 1964-66, 1974-76 and their mortality rates for oesophageal cancer and gastric cancer in 1974-76. Both sets of data were in agreement with each other, and were consistent with the geographical distribution of these two diseases. Correlation coefficients derived from such analysis were as follows: oesophageal cancer in males--0.61 (p less than 0.01); and in females--0.47 (p less than 0.01); gastric cancer in males--0.63 (p less than 0.01), and in females--0.54 (p less than 0.01). SQS was positively correlated with mortality rates for oesophageal cancer and gastric cancer whereas it was not correlated with cancers of the liver, lung cancer and leukaemia in males and cervical cancer in females. There was no significant difference between the relevant parameters of the high incidence area and those of the low incidence area. These findings show that salt intake such as salty vegetables and cured meat might be one of the risk factors inducing oesophageal and gastric cancers.