Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #115607

L. Joseph Su, PHD, MPH, Epidemiology Program/School of Public Health, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, 1600 Canal Street, Suite 800, New Orleans, LA 70112, Hui-Yi Lin, Health Sciences Center, Louisiana State University, 1600 Canal Street, Suite 800, new orleans, LA 70112, 504-473-6669, hlin@lsuhsc.edu, and Cindy Cheng, Benjamin Franklin High School, 2001 Leon C. Simon Dr, New Orleans, LA 70122.

Obesity has risen at an epidemic rate during the past decades in the US. Similar findings are observed in other developed countries. It is suggested that overweight and obesity may contribute to 20% of cancer deaths in women and 14% in men in the US. In this study, obesity prevalence and cancer incidence and mortality data at the state level of three time points over the past decade were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. Linear regression models were applied to evaluate the relationship between obesity and cancers, specifically, all cancer combined, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colon cancer. The outcome variables were logit transformations of mortality and incidence rate (10⁵) for cancer sites from 1999 to 2001. The independent variables were obesity rates and gender for 1991, 1999, and 2001. The data were based on 50 states excluding the District of Columbia because its uniqueness of population composition. This study found that obesity is strongly associated (p< 0.001) with both colon cancer incidence (β=1.90, R²=0.68) and mortality (β=2.16, R²=0.73) adjusting for gender. Obesity is associated with female breast cancer mortality rate (β=2.09 p<0.001, R²=0.23) but not incidence rate. The association between obesity and prostate cancer, either incidence or mortality rate, is not statistically significant. The latent effect between obesity and cancer was examined in this study. This study suggests that obesity is highly associated with both mortality and incidence of colon cancer. The relationship between obesity and prostate and breast cancer are less clearly defined.

Learning Objectives: Participants will be able to

• Gain knowledge about the obesity prevalence and cancer incidence and mortality rates at the state level in the US
• Describe the relationship between obesity and cancer of colon, breast, and prostate based on the results of ecologic analysis
• Plan and design further studies to confirm the study findings

Keywords: Cancer, Obesity

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation