Incidence and mortality of prostate cancer and their relationship with the Human Development Index worldwide

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence and mortality of prostate cancer and their relationship with the Human Development Index (HDI) and its components in Asia in 2012. METHODS: This study was an ecological study conducted based on the GLOBOCAN project of the World Health Organization. The correlation between standardized incidence rate (SIR) and standardized mortality rate (SMR) of prostate cancer with HDI and its components was assessed using SPSS Inc Version 18.0 (Chicago). RESULTS: There were 1,094,916 incident cases of prostate cancer and 307,481 deaths recorded in 2012 worldwide. SIR and SMR due to HDI were 72 and 9.7 in very high human development regions, 37.5 and 12.9 in high human development regions, 7 and 3.7 in medium human development regions, and 14.9 and 12.1 in low human development regions per 100,000 people, respectively. A positive correlation of 0.475 was seen between SIR of prostate cancer and HDI (P ≤ 0.001). Also, a negative correlation of 0.160 was seen between SMR of prostate cancer and HDI (P = 0.032). CONCLUSION: The incidence of prostate cancer is high in countries with higher development. A positive correlation was observed between the SIR of prostate cancer and the HDI and its components, such as life expectancy at birth, mean years of schooling, and the gross national income per capita. In addition, there was a negative correlation between SMR and HDI.