Gastric cancer mortality rates by occupation and industry among male and female workers aged 25–64 years in Japan

Differences in risk for gastric cancer exist among occupations and industries in Japan. Using a 2015 national dataset, we estimated the mortality rates due to gastric cancer in Japanese male and female workers aged 25–64 yr. Regression models were used to estimate the mortality rate ratios separately for men and women with adjustment for age. The occupation with the highest risk ratio was “Service” in men (2.06, 95% confidence interval: 1.63–2.61) and “Construction and Mining” in women compared with “Sales”. For industries, workers in “Mining”, “Electricity, Gas, Heat supply and Water”, “Fisheries”, “Agriculture and Forestry”, and “Construction” had a higher mortality risk. Our results showed that occupations and industries with higher mortality rates in men had the same trend as the results from 2010, and occupations and industries with higher mortality rates in women were almost the same as those in men. The analyses also indicated that managerial and professional workers in Japan had higher mortality as opposed to developed Western countries. In conclusion, this study suggests that occupations and industries still impact men and women’s health in terms of mortality due to gastric cancer in Japan.