title: Usefulness of correlation analyses in the epidemiology of stomach cancer.
abstract: To detect the risk factors for stomach cancer, we performed correlation analyses among stomach cancer mortality, food consumption, and other related factors using population-based data. Cereals (especially rice) and salty foods (particularly salted and dried fish) were related positively to stomach cancer mortality; milk and milk products, meat, oils and fats, and fruits were related inversely to it. We believe these results show that factors related positively to stomach cancer mortality could play a role in risk and those related inversely could be protective in the etiology of stomach cancer. As complementary methods in case-control and cohort studies, correlation analyses seemed useful when variation of exposures to risk factors is small between individuals within a population but is relatively large between populations.
mesh_terms: D004032:Diet / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D005519:Food Preservation; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D012034:Refrigeration; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality*; D014481:United States