Lindex #2115

Mack TM, Berkel J, Bernstein L, Mack W

Religion and Cancer in Los Angeles County

National Cancer Institute Monograph

1985; 69:235-245

The authors conducted an extensive survey of different religious groups residing in Los Angeles County in order to compare the incidence of 20 types of cancer by ethnicity and religious affiliation. The University of Southern California Cancer Surveillance Program identified every Los Angeles County resident in whom cancer was diagnosed, using hospital pathology and mortality reports. Each case was classified by date of birth, sex, race, religion, birthplace, and residential address. Place of residence was used to classify cases by socioeconomic class. 266,024 cases were abstracted from 1972-81. 80 percent had a recorded religious affiliation while 4 percent were listed as atheist or agnostic. There remained 94,886 cases for study. Examination by four experts on religion enabled further ranking of the Protestant denominations by degree of fundamentalism. Thus, three categories of Protestants were used: A.- least fundamentalist and comprised of the first four of the aforementioned Protestant denominations; B.- moderately fundamental and evangelist including Methodists and Lutherans; and C.- most fundamentalist, comprised of Baptists and assorted other denominations. Census information did not classify residents by religious affiliation so direct calculations of incidence were not possible. Cancer patients were compared between religions by using proportional incidence ratios (PIR) of 19 different anatomical cancers. The total number of cancer cases in that religious denomination was arbitrarily multiplied by the proportion of that cancer among Protestant group B, within each age group (by sex). A chi-square test with one degree of freedom was used to calculate confidence limits around these PIR values. Further analyses were done on neoplasm-religion combinations that had extreme values: PIR <0.8 or> 1.2. PIR's were computed for each social class in these groups. PIR values that still remained extreme were again analyzed for nativity.

For Cancer of the Colon among males, of 1,302 Jews, the PIR was 1.3; of 15 cases among Seventh Day Adventists, the PIR was 0.9; of 90 cases among Mormons, the PIR was 1.0; of 36 cases among Christian Scientists, the PIR was 1.1; of 251 cases among Protestants in class A, the PIR was 0.9; of 462 cases Protestants in class B, the PIR was 1.0; of 184 cases among Protestants in class C, the PIR was 0.8; of 22 cases among Jehovah's Witnesses, the PIR was 1.3; of 1,678 cases among Roman Catholics, the PIR was 1.2 ; and of 58 cases among Eastern Orthodox, the PIR was 0.9.

For females, of 1,275 cases among Jews, the PIR was 1.0; of 33 cases among Seventh-Day Adventists, the PIR was 0.9; of 112 cases among Mormons; the PIR was 1.0; of 107 cases among Christian Scientists, the PIR was 1.0; of 486 cases among Protestants in class A, the PIR was 1.0; of 629 cases among Protestants in class B, the PIR was l.0; of 357 cases among Protestants in class C, the PIR was 1.0; of 30 cases among Jehovah's Witnesses, the PIR was 1.0; of 2,020 cases among Roman Catholics, the PIR was 1.1; and of 48 cases among Eastern Orthodox, the PIR was 0.8.