Identification of thyroid cancer risk factors incidence in urban and rural areas, Pakistan

Abstract

As like the other countries, the risk of thyroid carcinoma is significantly increasing over the last few decades in Pakistan. This study aspires to know the cause and effect of this disease in urban and rural areas by investigation of different risk factors. For this purpose, incidence data was collected from Institute of Nuclear Medicine & Oncology Lahore and Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore. This study consists of 88 rural and 232 urban patients and the possible risk factors of thyroid cancer investigated via questionnaire. The logistic regression is used as a statistical tool and the results are computed on the behalf of odd ratios. The result shows that 48 rural and 112 urban cases are suffered from thyroid cancer. In rural areas two factors use of iodine diet and oxidative stress are seen to be significant with odd ratios 1.642 and 1.796 while in the urban areas seven factors residential Area, oxidative Stress, too much consumption of meat & fast food, too much use of crucifer vegetables, excess use of fats and sea food are seen to be significant with odd ratios 0.760, 2.121, 1.294, 1.187, 1.618, 1.632 and 0.892, respectively. It is observed that the oxidative stress is the common factor in urban and rural areas.