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Bladder cancer, tobacco smoking, coffee and alcohol drinking in Brescia, northern Italy

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Abstract

The association between tobacco smoking, the consumption of coffee and alcohol and bladder cancer was investigated in a hospital-based case-control study in Brescia, northern Italy. A total of 172 incident cases (135 men and 37 women) and 578 controls (398 men and 180 women) were enrolled. As expected, cigarette smoking was strongly associated with bladder cancer. The odds ratios (OR) for coffee drinking adjusted for age, education, residence and cigarette smoking in current drinkers were 2.6 (95% confidence interval, CI: 1.1–6.1) in men and 5.2 (95% CI: 1.0–30.4) in women. A dose-response relationship was found in men, with the highest risk in the highest category of exposure: drinkers of more than 5 cups per day had an OR of 4.5 (95% CI: 1.2–16.8). The ORs for current alcohol drinkers were 2.1 (95% CI: 1.0–4.8) in men and 3.4 (95% CI: 1.2–9.7) in women; according to grams of ethanol drunk per day (grams/day, g/d) the ORs were: 1.7 (1–20 g/d), 1.6 (21–40 g/d), 4.3 (41–60 g/d) and 4.6 (61+ g/d) in men and 3.1 (1–20 g/d) and 3.9 (21+ g/d) in women. These results suggest that regular consumption of both coffee and alcohol can be independently associated with an increased bladder cancer risk.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Hygiene, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy

    Francesco Donato & Umberto Gelatti

  2. Unit of Environmental Cancer Epidemiology, International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France

    Paolo Boffetta

  3. Institute of Occupational Health, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy

    Raffaella Fazioli & Stefano Porru

  4. Institute of Urology, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy

    Vito Aulenti

Authors
  1. Francesco Donato
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  2. Paolo Boffetta
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  3. Raffaella Fazioli
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  4. Vito Aulenti
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  5. Umberto Gelatti
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  6. Stefano Porru
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Donato, F., Boffetta, P., Fazioli, R. et al. Bladder cancer, tobacco smoking, coffee and alcohol drinking in Brescia, northern Italy. Eur J Epidemiol 13, 795–800 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007453322899

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