Open AccessPARITY AND DEATH FROM COLON CANCER IN WOMEN: A CASE‐CONTROL STUDY
Author(s) -
McMichael A.J.,
Potter J.D.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
community health studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.946
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1753-6405
pISSN - 0314-9021
DOI - 10.1111/j.1753-6405.1984.tb00420.x
Subject(s) - parity (physics) , medicine , demography , relative risk , population , colorectal cancer , census , gynecology , cancer , obstetrics , environmental health , confidence interval , physics , particle physics , sociology
Within the population of ever‐married women, aged 40 or over, in South Australia, the parity distributions of 515 consecutive registered deaths attributed to colon cancer during 1976–1980, 17,941 consecutive deaths from other causes, and the mid‐1976 census population of 203,718 women were compared. The age‐adjusted relative risks of colon cancer death, using the census population as controls and treating nulliparous women as RR = 1.00, were 0.72 and 0.63 for para 1–2 and para 3‐plus women respectively. These risk reductions were statistically significant (p<0.05). Comparison of cases with other deceased women as controls yielded lesser reductions in risk associated with increasing parity (RR = 0.89 and 0.80); the equivalent comparison for ever‐married men showed a negligible change in risk associated with having fathered children (RR = 0.98). The similarity of these findings with other recent reports of colon cancer in relation to parity in women, and their likely biological significance, is discussed.