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Table 1 Characteristics of cases and subcohort members in the Netherlands Cohort Study (NLCS), 1986 - 2003

From: Alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking and the risk of subtypes of head-neck cancer: results from the Netherlands Cohort Study

 

Subcohort

Head-neck cancer cases

  

Overall

Subtypes

   

OCCa

OHPCa

LCa

Exposure variables and potential confounders

( N = 4288)b

( N = 395)b

(N = 110)b

(N = 83)b

(N = 199)b

Age at baseline (years)

61.3 (4.2)c

61.8 (4.1)

61.8 (4.3)

61.5 (4.2)

61.8 (4.0)

Sex: men (%)

49.2

79.5

59.1

73.5

94.0

Abstainer from alcohol (%)

23.9

12.4

10.9

13.3

13.1

 Men (%)

14.8

9.2

4.6

9.8

10.7

 Women (%)

32.6

24.7

20.0

22.7d

50.0e

Alcohol consumers:

     

Ethanol intake (grams/day)

13.4 (15.0)

27.3 (25.6)

28.7 (25.4)

35.0 (31.6)

23.2 (22.1)

 Men

17.5

29.1

34.3

40.2

23.5

 Women

8.5

18.6

19.1

18.0

14.7

Beer intake (glasses/week)

2.2 (5.8)

6.3 (12.5)

4.4 (10.2)

10.3 (18.3)

5.8 (10.4)

 Men

3.7

6.9

6.1

11.1

5.8

 Women

0.3

3.5

1.4

7.9

4.5

Wine intake (glasses/week)

3.7 (5.6)

4.4 (9.1)

5.5 (8.1)

6.0 (11.5)

3.1 (8.4)

 Men

3.1

4.0

4.2

6.7

3.1

 Women

4.4

6.0

7.7

3.5

4.1

Liquor intake (glasses/week)

2.9 (5.7)

7.3 (10.0)

8.4 (11.2)

7.7 (11.7)

6.4 (8.3)

 Men

4.6

8.2

11.5

9.4

6.6

 Women

0.9

3.0

3.1

1.9

1.9

Cigarette smoking status

     

Total

     

 Never smokers (%)

36.9

11.1

26.4

7.2

4.5

 Former smokers (%)

35.5

27.9

21.8

26.5

32.2

 Current smokers (%)

27.6

61.0

51.8

66.3

63.3

Men

     

 Never smokers (%)

13.8

6.7

16.9

4.9

3.7

 Former smokers (%)

51.4

31.5

27.7

29.5

33.7

 Current smokers (%)

34.8

61.8

55.4

65.6

62.6

Women

     

 Never smokers (%)

59.4

28.4

40.0

13.6d

16.7e

 Former smokers (%)

20.0

13.6

13.3

18.2

8.3

 Current smokers (%)

20.6

58.0

46.7

68.2

75.0

Ever cigarette smokers:

     

Frequency of cigarette smoking (N/day)

15.3 (10.2)

19.5 (10.9)

19.9 (11.9)

21.4 (12.7)

18.6 (9.6)

 Men

17.1

19.9

21.6

22.9

18.4

 Women

11.6

17.4

16.5

16.7

22

Duration of cigarette smoking (years)

31.7 (12.1)

39.1 (9.5)

37.8 (9.2)

38.5 (9.8)

39.9 (9.4)

 Men

33.6

39.8

38.9

39.8

40.0

 Women

27.8

35.8

35.4

34.5

38.2

Pack-years of cigarette smoking (N)

22.8 (17.7)

34.4 (20.9)

34.5 (23.5)

37.0 (23.2)

33.5 (18.9)

 Men

26.2

35.7

38.5

40.5

33.2

 Women

16.0

28.3

26.4

26.3

38.5

Level of education (%)

     

 Primary

29.5

27.6

20.9

25.6

31.5

 Lower vocational

22.0

18.9

17.3

17.1

20.8

 Secondary and medium vocational

34.8

35.7

41.8

36.6

32.5

 University and higher vocational

13.8

17.9

20.0

20.7

15.2

  1. aOCC: oral cavity cancer; OHPC: oro-/hypopharyngeal cancer; LC: laryngeal cancer.
  2. bThe number of subcohort members or cases used in age- and sex-adjusted, multivariate analyses of alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking.
  3. cValues are given as mean (SD); for categorical variables, N (%) is presented.
  4. dBased on only 22 female OHPC cases.
  5. eBased on only 12 female LC cases.
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