Colorectal Cancer: A Study of Risk Factors in a Tertiary Care Hospital of North Bengal

Abstract

Aim: Age, sex, living place (urban or rural), smoking, alcohol consumption, dietary pattern, obesity are considered as risk factors for Colorectal cancer. Our study was done to evaluate the association between these risk factors and colorectal cancer in the population of North Bengal. Materials and Methods: The present study was done over a period of one year as a hospital-based analytical observational type of study with cross-sectional type of study design. All the patients undergoing colorectal endoscopic biopsy at the Department of Surgery, NBMC&H during the study period for various clinical indications comprised the study population. History and clinical examination were done of the patients whose colorectal biopsy were taken and filled-up in a predesigned pre-tested proforma. Significance was tested at 95% confidence interval. Results: There is an increased risk of colorectal carcinoma (CRC) with increasing age in our study population. Odd’s ratio for last 2 age groups are statistically significant with 2.83 for 41-50 years age group (95% CI is0.3-24), 13.6 for 51-60 years age group (95% CI is 2.1-85.9), 42.5 for more than 60 y age group patients (95% CI is 3.1-571). There is increased risk of colorectal carcinoma in males with an Odd’s ratio of 1.6 (95% CI is 0.5-5.5), but it is not statistically significant. There was an increased urban incidence of colorectal carcinoma compared to rural population with an Odd’s ratio of 1.8 (with a 95% CI of 0.6-5.9). In our study smoking also proved to be a risk factor and it is significant with an Odd’s ratio of 5.4 with a 95% CI of 1.6-8.7. Odd’s ratio for cases of alcohol consumption was 3.5 with a 95% CI of 1-11.6. Carcinoma cases were more common among patients with history of non-vegetarian dietary intake with Odds ratio of 1.5 (with a 95% CI of 0.3-8.7), but it was not statistically significant. Obesity has got a significant association with CRC in our study with an Odd’s ratio of 7.2 (with 95% CI of 1.3-40.2). Conclusion: More than 50 years of age, smoking, obesity were significant risk factors in our study. Other risk factors were though not significant, but much more common in colorectal cancer patients compared to non-malignant population.

Keywords

• colorectal carcinoma
• endoscopic biopsy
• obesity
• smoking