Iranian high risk regions due to esophageal cancer: spatial analysis of cancer registry data

AIM: The aim of this study was to identify the esophageal cancer (EC) high risk regions to evaluate changes of relative risks (RRs) for both genders by time in Iranian provinces. BACKGROUND: EC is one of the public health problems in Iran. In spite of this fact, there is not comprehensive study estimating RRs across the Iranian provinces. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study the data for EC cases were extracted from Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOHME) including 30 provinces from 2004 to 2010. For estimating the model parameters, we used Bayesian approach by regarding spatial correlations of adjacent provinces. RESULTS: The Northern half of Iran has high risk and other half has low risk. During the time, the range of RRs has decreased for both gender and also the dispersion of EC is decreasing for women but nearly is fixed for men. CONCLUSION: While RR has declined during the study, focusing on the Northern half of Iran as high risk regions is a considerable fact for policymakers.