| Summary: | 碩士 === 臺北醫學大學 === 公共衛生學研究所 === 97 === Objectives: In the recent years, lung cancer has become the leading cancer mortality in many parts of the world. Most studies on determinants of lung cancer focus on individual-level variables but rarely on group-level variables. The purpose of this research is to assess the trends of lung-cancer mortality and to identify relevant group-level predictors, using Finland and Norway as examples
Materials and Methods: Data were extracted from OECD Health Data 2008. Lung cancer mortality, health status, health care resource, tobacco consumption, health-related expenditures, nutritional variables, and economic variables from 1960 to 2006 were included in the analysis. Pearson’s correlation were used to assess the association with these variables and lung cancer mortality. Tobacco-related policy/strategies were also compared between the two countries.
Results: Despite of showing a downward trend in tobacco consumption, Norway still exhibited a increasing trend in male lung-cancer mortality, contrary to what was observed in Finland. As for females, both countries showed an upward trend, consisted with most developed countries. Statistically significant factors related to female lung cancer mortalities were health care resources and utilization, and tobacco consumption. As for male lung-cancer mortality, the significant factors also included health expenditure, economic variables, and nutritional variables, in additional to health care resources and tobacco consumption. Comparing tobacco control policies revealed that Norway focused more on legislation while Finland placed more emphasis on changing attitudes and values of the general public.
Conclusion: Some ecological variables have been identified as predictors of lung-cancer mortality. However, the underlying mechanism of their effect on lung-cancer mortality needs to be further studies. While both Finland and Norway have reduced tobacco consumption over the years, differences in tobacco control policies may have affected the trends in lung-cancer mortality in both countries.
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