Secular trends of salted fish consumption and nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a multi-jurisdiction ecological study in 8 regions from 3 continents

Table 4 Beta (β) regression coefficient from multivariate regression analysis of NPC age-standardized incidence and mortality rates on cumulative salted fish (per kg), cigarette (per stick) and fresh vegetable consumption (per kg) in Hong Kong, 1991–2008

Cumulative window (Years)	Independent variable	Age-standardized incidence rate		Age-standardized mortality rates
		Male	Female	Male	Female
0	Salted fish	0.473	0.345	0.463	0.238
	Smoking	0.195	0.321	0.145	0.189
	Fresh-vegetables	−0.213	−0.249	−0.140	−0.119
5	Salted fish	2.744*	1.740	1.324	1.607
	Smoking	−2.694*	−1.589	−0.814	−1.501
	Fresh-vegetables	−0.917*	−0.794*	−0.402	−0.725
10	Salted fish	2.077	0.339	0.289	1.992
	Smoking	−3.142*	−2.038	0.306	−1.571
	Fresh-vegetables	−1.793*	−2.408*	−0.363	−0.252

* Significant at 0.05 level.
Cumulative salted fish consumption per capita was estimated from FAO commodity statistics on fish, dried, salted or smoked.

ISSN: 1471-2407