Maruchi N, Aoki S, Tsuda K, Tanaka Y, Toyokawa H
Gan. 1977 Feb;68(1):1-13.
The present study was designed to examine the epidemiological association of food consumption with cancer mortality in Japan, if any, in comparison with similar examinations in developed countries including Japan, in a search for dietary factors in cancer etiology. Whereas food consumption patterns in Japan was believed to be specific among developed countries, this study revealed that the correlation matrix among major foods both for international and Japanese data made it possible to categorize these foods into two groups with some similar patterns, since there should be observed a positive or negative correlation for each pair of foods. The patterns for correlation of food consumption to cancer mortality in Japan were found to be considerably different from those in developed countries, and this suggested that the epidemiological association between the two in Japan, if any, could be specifically evaluated from that in develop countries. The urban-type region for food consumption in Japan, however, indicated a possible westernization for the relation of food consumption to cancer mortality as well as for food consumption patterns, whereas the traditional Japanese region for food consumption did not indicate any similarity with westernization for the relationship between food consumption and cancer mortality, as well as for food consumption patterns. The above findings also suggested that there might be a possible significance for the regionalization of Japan in such studies, and that the urbanization of food consumption patterns in Japan would show that this country has a similar pattern of association between food consumption and cancer mortality as observed among developed countries in Europe and/or North America.
本研究旨在调查日本食物消费与癌症死亡率之间的流行病学关联（若存在），并与包括日本在内的发达国家的类似调查进行比较，以寻找癌症病因中的饮食因素。尽管日本的食物消费模式在发达国家中被认为是独特的，但本研究表明，国际数据和日本数据中主要食物之间的相关矩阵使得将这些食物分为两组且具有一些相似模式成为可能，因为每对食物之间应观察到正相关或负相关。日本食物消费与癌症死亡率之间的相关模式被发现与发达国家有很大不同，这表明在日本两者之间的流行病学关联（若存在）可以从发达国家中进行专门评估。然而，日本食物消费的城市型地区在食物消费与癌症死亡率的关系以及食物消费模式方面显示出可能的西方化，而传统日本食物消费地区在食物消费与癌症死亡率的关系以及食物消费模式方面并未显示出与西方化有任何相似之处。上述发现还表明，在这类研究中日本的区域划分可能具有一定意义，并且日本食物消费模式的城市化将表明该国在食物消费与癌症死亡率之间的关联模式与欧洲和/或北美的发达国家类似。
