Impact of Life Habits on Colorectal Cancer

ABSTRACT

Objective: to assess the relationship between different colorectal cancer (CC) risk factors in the province of Albacete, Spain.Subjects And Methods: the study was designed to be population-based, observational, analytical, descriptive and crosssectional and used a questionnaire. The study area included the Primary Care Health Centres in the province of Albacete.We compared two previously assessed areas, one with a high CC incidence and the other with a low CC incidence, along with the factors that could influence these differences. We used a questionnaire to collect personal and consumer habit data in relation to CC. We did bivariate and multivariate (logistic regression) statistical analyses.The predictor variables considered in this model were age, gender, body mass index (BMI), level of education, intensity of physical activity, presence or absence of a disease, smoking habit (packs per year), alcohol intake, number of defecations per week, being on a diet, intake frequencies (IF) of pasta and rice, IF of eggs or omelette, IF of white fish, IF of blue fish, IF of pulses, IF of vegetables and salads, fruit, cold meats, meat, water intake and relatives with cancer. Results: The high CC incidence areas presented an incidence between 26.9 and 30.2 cases per 100,000 citizens per year, while the rates of the low incidence areas were between 5.1 and 6.5. A total of 417 people participated (56.8% women), of whom 245 (58.8%) came from the low CC incidence area (41.2% men) and 172 (41.2%) were from the high CC incidence area (45.9% men). After adjusting the model in the logistic regression analysis, the variables related to high cancer incidence were alcohol intake, odds ratio (OR) 1,79 (CI: 1.8-2.96; P=0.024 eating eating pasta and rice more than two days per week: OR 2.23 (CI: 1.33-3.72; P=0.002); eating eggs and/or omelette more than two days per week: OR 2.68 (CI: 1.49-4.80; P=0.001), and drinking more than two litres of water per day: OR 2.87 (CI: 1.51-5.46; P=0.001. Frequent physical exercise related with a low CC incidence: OR 3.38 (CI: 1.30-8.84; P=0.013).Conclusions: In this study, the highest CC incidence is associated with alcohol intake and a high intake of water, pasta and rice, and eggs. Doing physical exercise regularly has a protective effect.