Association between obesity and the risk of gastric cancer in premenopausal and postmenopausal women: A nationwide cohort study
In Young Choi, Yoon Jin Choi, Dong Wook Shin, Kyungdo Han, Keun Hye Jeon, Su‐Min Jeong, Jung Eun Yoo
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIM: Obesity was suggested to increase the incidence of gastric cancer (GC) in women, but results from previous studies were inconsistent. We investigated the relationship between obesity and the risk of GC according to menopausal status. METHODS: We enrolled 1 418 180 premenopausal and 4 854 187 postmenopausal women aged ≥ 40 years using the Korean National Health Insurance System Cohort (2009-2014). We calculated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for GC incidence according to body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) using the Cox proportional hazards models. RESULTS: were 1.12 (0.95-1.33), 0.96 (0.89-1.04), 1.02 (0.94-1.11), and 0.99 (0.83-1.18), respectively, for premenopausal women and 1.07 (1.00-1.14), 1.01 (0.99-1.04), 1.03 (1.00-1.05), and 1.11 (1.10-1.16), respectively, for postmenopausal women. Compared with the group with WC 65-74.9 cm, the adjusted HRs (95% CIs) for GC for the groups with WC < 65, 75-84.9, 85-94.9, and ≥ 90 cm were 1.00 (0.88-1.15), 1.03 (0.96-1.11), 1.10 (0.99-1.22), and 1.02 (0.81-1.27), respectively, for premenopausal women and 1.01 (0.94-1.09), 1.01 (0.99-1.04), 1.09 (1.06-1.13), and 1.14 (1.09-1.19), respectively, for postmenopausal women. CONCLUSIONS: We found a positive association between the highest BMI and WC category and risk of GC in postmenopausal women; however, such an association was not evident in premenopausal women.