Prabhakar A K, Menon G R
Indian Council of Medical Research, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, India.
Indian J Cancer. 1995 Jun;32(2):63-8.
Cancer of the uterine cervix is the commonest cancer among Indian women accounting for 1/5 of the total cancer incidence. It is the estimated that by the turn of century 139,000 women in India would be developing cervical cancer. Age at marriage has been recognised as a major risk factor associated with cervical cancer. Over the past 8 decades there has been a rise in age at marriage varying from 14 years in 1901 to 18 years in 1981. Consequently the proportion of women married in the age group 15-19 years has fallen from 88% in 1941 to 45% in 1981. The present paper has attempted to study the effect of change in proportion married below 17 years on cervical cancer incidence for the year 1985 in India. The proportion of married women in the age group 15-19 years was constant around 88% from 1901-41 and from 1951 onwards the reduction in the proportion married has been observed. During the last 35 years, after the start of reduction in the proportion married in the age group (15-19) years, a reduction of 2097 cervical cancer cases or 6.3 percent reduction in the incidence of invasive cervical cancer is observed. It may be postulated that it will take a long time to expect a significant reduction in the incidence of cervical cancer if the primary prevention of rising the age at marriage above 18 years is adopted as a strategy for control of cervical cancer.
子宫颈癌是印度女性中最常见的癌症，占癌症总发病率的五分之一。据估计，到本世纪末，印度将有139,000名女性患上子宫颈癌。结婚年龄已被公认为是与子宫颈癌相关的主要风险因素。在过去的80年里，结婚年龄有所上升，从1901年的14岁升至1981年的18岁。因此，15至19岁年龄段结婚的女性比例已从1941年的88%降至1981年的45%。本文试图研究1985年印度17岁以下结婚比例的变化对子宫颈癌发病率的影响。1901年至1941年以及1951年以后，15至19岁年龄段结婚女性的比例一直稳定在88%左右，此后结婚比例开始下降。在过去35年里，自15至19岁年龄段结婚比例开始下降以来，观察到子宫颈癌病例减少了2097例，浸润性子宫颈癌发病率降低了6.3%。可以推测，如果将提高结婚年龄至18岁以上作为子宫颈癌控制的主要预防策略，那么要大幅降低子宫颈癌发病率可能需要很长时间。
