Table 1.

Characteristics of 1,203 colorectal cancer patients and 2,406 hospital controls, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, 1982–1998

Characteristic	Cases	Controls	p Value
Age at diagnosis (years)	63.4	63.4	0.87
Gender
% Male	56.3%	56.3%	1.00
Body mass index before illness	26.5	26.1	0.02
Race
% Caucasian	94.4%	96.7%	<0.01
Residence
% Western New York residence	55.8%	86.6%	<0.01
% Outside Western New York	44.2%	13.4%
Education
% <High school education	28.1%	25.4%	0.08
% High school graduate or more	71.9%	74.6%
Income
<$16,000/year	45.8%	46.0%	0.90
$16,000–$30,000/year	30.8%	31.3%
>$30,000/year	23.4%	22.7%
Family history of CRC
% No 1st degree relative with CRC	86.9%	88.9%	0.08
% With 1st degree relative with CRC	13.1%	11.1%
% No relatives with CRC	81.0%	85.5%	<0.01
% With any relatives with CRC	19.0%	14.5%
Alcohol consumption (drinks/week)	5.3	5.1	0.49
Fruit consumption (servings/week)	8.9	8.8	0.86
Vegetable consumption (servings/week)	15.7	16.2	0.16
Cruciferous vegetable consumption  (servings/week)	3.7	4.0	0.04
Meat consumption (servings/week)	23.4	20.7	<0.01
Aspirin (tablets/week)	2.0	2.7	<0.01
Pack-years
Never smoker	40.8%	43.0%	0.04
1-20 Pack-years	18.2%	17.8%
20-40 Pack-years	18.7%	20.2%
>41 Pack-years	22.3%	19.0%
SHS exposure
No SHS	37.2%	37.1%	0.09
0.5–2 h/day	21.1%	23.6%
2–7 h/day	22.9%	23.4%
>7 h/day	18.8%	15.9%