title: Mortality among California Seventh-Day Adventists for selected cancer sites.
abstract: In previous reports concerning cancer among Seventh-Day Adventists (SDA), comparisons were made only with the general population. This report compared California SDA to a sample of non-SDA who were demographically similar to SDA. The study consisted of 17 years of follow-up (1960--76) on 22,940 white California SDA and 13 years of follow-up (1960--72) on 112,725 white California non-SDA. Both groups completed the same base-line questionnaire in 1960. Deaths were ascertained by annual contacts with each study member and by computer-assisted record linkage with the California State death certificate file. Results indicated that, with the exception of colon-rectal cancer and smoking-related cancers, the difference in risk of fatal cancer between SDA and non-SDA was substantially reduced when SDA were compared with a more socioeconomically similar population. The persistence of the low risk for colon-rectal cancer can probably be attributed to some aspect of the diet or life-style of the SDA.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D002140:California; D002835:Christianity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007414:Intestinal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D008019:Life Style; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality*; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States