Food Environments and Hepatocellular Carcinoma Incidence

Mimi Ton, Michael J. Widener, Peter James and Trang VoPham
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Mimi Ton: Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington School of Public Health, 3980 15th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Michael J. Widener: Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3G3, Canada
Peter James: Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, 401 Park Drive, Boston, MA 02215, USA
Trang VoPham: Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington School of Public Health, 3980 15th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98195, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 11, 1-11

Abstract: Research into the potential impact of the food environment on liver cancer incidence has been limited, though there is evidence showing that specific foods and nutrients may be potential risk or preventive factors. Data on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cases were obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) cancer registries. The county-level food environment was assessed using the Modified Retail Food Environment Index (mRFEI), a continuous score that measures the number of healthy and less healthy food retailers within counties. Poisson regression with robust variance estimation was used to calculate incidence rate ratios (IRRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between mRFEI scores and HCC risk, adjusting for individual- and county-level factors. The county-level food environment was not associated with HCC risk after adjustment for individual-level age at diagnosis, sex, race/ethnicity, year, and SEER registry and county-level measures for health conditions, lifestyle factors, and socioeconomic status (adjusted IRR: 0.99, 95% CI: 0.96, 1.01). The county-level food environment, measured using mRFEI scores, was not associated with HCC risk.

Keywords: food environments; liver cancer; epidemiology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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