Investigation of the Relationship between the Incidence of Colorectal Cancer and the Human Development Index in Iran: An Ecologic Study

Colorectal cancer is the fourth most common cancer and the fifth cause of cancer-related mortality in Iran. This study aimed to determine the incidence of colorectal cancer in men and women and to investigate its relationship with the human development index (HDI) and its components in Iranian provinces.
This ecological study was conducted to assess the correlation between age-specific incidence of colorectal cancer in men and women and the Human Development Index. We used the data of the Iranian Cancer Registry and Statistical Centre of Iran. We used a bivariate correlation method to assess the correlation of ASR and HDI. P values less than 0.05 were considered significant. All reported P-values are two-sided. Statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS software version 23.
The highest incidence of colorectal cancer in men was seen in Tehran (78.16), Eastern Azerbaijan (41.14), and Semnan (62.13), and the highest incidence of colorectal cancer in women was seen in Tehran (47.18), Semnan (80.14), and Eastern Azerbaijan (82.12), respectively. The results showed that the incidence of colorectal cancer in men (r = 0.605) and women (r = 0.661) had a positive significant correlation with the Human Development Index (P The incidence of colorectal cancer was high in provinces with a higher human development index. Therefore, evaluation of the incidence of cancer by the Human Development Index and its components can be used to show a clearer picture of the distribution of cancer in each country and may be useful for cancer prevention plans.