Factors influencing mortality trends of pancreatic cancer in Spain, 1955-2020

Abstract

Objectives: the aim of this study was to analyze the trends of pancreatic cancer mortality in Spain from 1955 to 2020 in both genders and every age group, in order to describe the changes in the prevalence of some risk factors and their possible influence on mortality. Methods: direct standardized mortality rates were calculated using the World Standard Population 2000-2025 and joinpoint analysis was performed for age-specific and age-standardized mortality trends for the period 1955-2020. Results: mortality rates increased with age in both genders, with a marked increase in older groups. During 2020, 71.5 % of male deaths and 81.5 % of female deaths from pancreatic cancer occurred among those aged 65 years or more. Spanish National Health Surveys since 1987 show decreasing trends in daily smoking, but striking increases in obesity and diabetes mellitus rates in both genders, and rates of daily smoking and obesity are remarkably higher among disadvantaged social classes. Conclusions: pancreatic cancer mortality rates have increased uninterruptedly in Spain during the last decades. Increasing trends in obesity and diabetes mellitus, particularly among males, and the different prevalence of obesity and smoking according to social class are public health problems of great concern. Smoking and obesity are potentially avoidable risk factors. Thus, educational programs and legislative measures should be implemented more widely, such as programs for smoking prevention, healthy nutrition and physical exercise, and would be applied more intensively in the most disadvantaged social classes.