A 1958 study demonstrated that Adventists have significantly lower age-sex-adjusted cancer mortality rates than the general California population for most cancer sites. Currently (beginning in 1974) an enlarged group of California Adventists is being studied (AHS) to determine which factors in the Adventist lifestyle are responsible for this reduced risk if it exists. At the present time the records of these two studies probably have about 21,000 study subjects in common (60% of those still living in the original population). However the records of these two studies have not been linked. The objectives of the study are two fold: 1) To ascertain the status of the individuals enrolled in the original SDA study and link the first records with current enrollees in the AHS. Accomplishing this will allow for a 20-year (1958-1977) mortality follow-up of these individuals and 2) to compare the mortality statistics from 15 years of follow-up data (1960-75) on the original 40,000 SDA study population with a more appropriate general population comparison group, namely the American Cancer Society's population of 1 million which has now been followed concurrently (1960-72). The methodology will involve linking the original data file with the AHS file and the administrative church records via computer matching, a relatively simple procedure. Those not matched would be traced and death certificates obtained. This study will accumulate new data regarding the mortality of SDA's for cancer sites which had only a few cases in the original 8 year follow-up period. It will be possible to determine whether the reduced cancer mortality in SDA's is due to selective factors related to those who choose to be members or whether they are a result of unique practices of SDA's as determined by internal comparisons with the SDA group.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter