Novel risk factors for primary prevention of oesophageal carcinoma: a case-control study from Sri Lanka

Table 2 Distribution of the demographic characteristics of cases and controls

Demographic characteristic	Cases (N = 49)		Controls (N = 196)
Demographic characteristic	No.	%	No.	%
Sex
Male	34	69.4	70	35.7
Female	15	30.6	126	64.3
Current marital status
Married	41	83.6	136	69.4
Single	4	8.2	39	19.8
Divorced/separated/widowed	4	8.2	21	10.8
Ethnicity
Sinhala	43	87.8	145	74.0
Other ethnicities (Tamil, Muslim, Burgher)	6	12.2	51	26.0
Highest educational level
Primary and lower	15	30.6	31	15.8
Secondary	33	67.4	153	78.0
Tertiary	1	2.0	12	6.2
Employment status
Currently employed	7	14.2	72	36.7
Previously employed	35	71.4	59	30.1
Never employed	7	14.3	65	33.2
Social status^a
Social class I-Leading professionals	1	2.0	8	4.1
Social class II-Lesser professionals	2	4.1	18	9.2
Social class III-Skilled workers & non-manual workers	15	30.6	56	28.6
Social class IV- Partly skilled workers	13	26.5	28	14.3
Social class V- Unskilled workers^b	18	36.7	86	43.9
Monthly family income (SLR)
< 20,000	24	49	88	44.9
20,001-50,000	20	40.8	90	45.9
50,001-100,000	5	10.2	15	7.7
> 100,000	0	0.0	3	1.5

^aClassification based on the occupation
^bBased on the classification, the unemployed are included in the social class V as well