Prevalence of modifiable risk factors of Hispanic adult patients admitted with gastric cancer in the US.

Abstract

254 Background: More than 19% of the US population is comprised of Hispanic individuals. For decades, cancer incidence has been increasing in this population, including cancers associated with infection (gastric, hepatic, cervical) and resulting from delayed screening (colorectal, cervical and breast). Risk factors associated with gastric cancer include H. pylori, obesity, alcohol, and tobacco use. However, ethnicity has not been a commonly reported risk factor despite the fact that studies have shown increasing incidence of gastric cancer in Hispanics at a younger age. Methods: We used the 2016-2019 National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database to stratify patients with gastric cancer by age, ethnicity, and comorbidities. Results: There were 77,745 adults with gastric cancer. Of these, 578 (7.45%) were ages 18-44 (group 1), 28,370 (36.47%) 45-64 years old (group 2), and 43,590 (55.08%) were over 65 (group 3). Group 1 was comprised of 29.4% White, 34.3% Hispanic, 14.5% Black, and 21.8% Asian or Pacific Islander patients. Group 2 consisted of 46.7% White, 19.7% Hispanic, 17.4% Black, and 16.2% Asian or Pacific Islander individuals. Group 3 had the highest percentage of White patients (56.0%) and lowest percentage of Hispanic individuals (12.9%). Group 3 also consisted of 15.1% Black and 16.0% Asian or Pacific Islander patients. In Hispanics with gastric cancer, there was a predominance of H. pylori among younger patients (8.6% in group 1 vs 3.6% and 2.1% in groups 2 and 3 respectively) (p = 0.00). Incidence of smoking increased with age (19.9% in group 1, 28.1% in group 2 and 31.1% in group 3) (p = 0.00) as did incidence of diabetes (8.1% in group 1, 26.4% in group 2 and 36.0% in group 3) (p = 0.00). Alcohol use was 3.0% in group 1, 4.3% in group 2 and 2.3% in group 3 (p = 0.035). The differences between all groups for gastric ulcer, gastric polyp and obesity were not statistically significant. Conclusions: Gastric cancer accounts for approximately 1.5% of all new cancers diagnosed in the US, with a high incidence in older White populations. However, this study demonstrates that there is a large proportion of young Hispanics with gastric cancer who have higher associated instances of H. pylori. This suggests the need for further research to determine if there is utility in screening for H. pylori in asymptomatic young Hispanics to decrease the burden of gastric cancer in this population. [Table: see text]