Page 44 - IJSA, Vol. 6, No 1, 2023

International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 6, No. 1, 2023
рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa

The mean age of the patients was M=62.11 (SD=12.71) diseases were 95 (66.9%) male and 47 (33.1%) female.
years, ranging between 24 and 93 years old. A The results of the analyzes of the further risk factors
significant gender differences is found only for the show no statistically significant relationship between
presence of accompanying cardiovascular diseases – the gender and the indicators of physical activity, smoking,
relative share in men is statistically significantly greater unhealthy diet, presence of stress, education, overweight
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than that those of women, χ (1, N=312)=3.945, p=0.049 and alcohol abuse.
(see Table 2). Among the patients with cardiovascular

Table 2
Analysis of the Relationship between Gender and Cardiovascular Disease

Absence of cardiovascular diseases Presence of cardiovascular diseases
Gender
People (n) Percentage (%)* People (n) Percentage (%)*
Male 95 55.9 95 66.9
Female 75 44.1 47 33.1

Note. *Percentage (%) refers to the relative frequency of each of the gender group within the patients with or without
cardiovascular diseases (e.g., 55.9% of the patients without cardiovascular diseases were male).

Concomitant cardiovascular diseases were, as expected, The results comparative analysis of survived and
more common in the age groups 60-74 and 75+ years old, deceased patient groups with regard to various socio-
while in the two younger groups – 15-44 and 45-59 years economic characteristics and health-related behavior of
old – they were less common. Interestingly, unhealthy the patients show significant differences in age,
eating prevails among the oldest patients (75+ years) and education, marital status, type of work, smoking and
has a significantly smaller relative share in the 45-59 age alcohol abuse. The deceased patient group has
group. The presence of the self-reported stress dominates statistically significantly higher average age, a higher
among the oldest patients (75+ years) and has a percentage of smokers, university graduates, alcohol
significantly smaller relative share in the age group 15- abusers, married and persons having a job with mainly
44 years old. The group of patients between 15 and 44 mental work. The survived patient group has a
years old has a significantly higher percentage of statistically significantly lower average age and lower
graduates than the other age groups. share of non-smokers, are rather persons with secondary
With regard to their marital status, the study participants or primary education, not abusing alcohol, are divorced
were divided into 4 groups: married – 185 people or or single, and persons with jobs that include mainly
48.9%, single – 108 people or 28.6%, divorced – 44 physical work. For the rest of the indicators, the
people or 11.6% and widowed – 41 people or 10.8%. difference between the two considered groups is not
Marital status does not correlate with indicators of statistically significant.
physical activity, cardiovascular disease, unhealthy diet The results of a multiple binary regression analysis that
and presence of stress. A statistically significant analyzed the factors that potentially influence fatal
relationship between marital status and smoking was outcome from stomach cancer are summarized in
found: the widowed and married patients have Table A.
significantly higher rates of smokers than single patients Marital status has the greatest influence – the risk of fatal
do. Higher education has a significantly higher relative outcome for married compared to not married persons is
share of married persons and consequentially a about 257 times greater. On second place as an indicator
significantly smaller share for unmarried. Overweight is the type of work, with the risk of a fatal outcome being
and alcohol abuse were significantly more among about 27 times greater for those performing primarily
married persons and significantly less among unmarried mental work compared to those with primarily physical
persons. work. Further factors with significant influence are
Factors that Affect the Fatal Outcome smoking behavior, alcohol abuse and higher education.
Just over the half of the patients (51.9%) in the sample With borderline significance (p<0.10) are the indicators
were still alive at the time point of the study, 182 (48.1%) age and unhealthy diet.
were dead. Before comparing the groups of deceased and In order to consider the combined influence of the studied
survived participants with regard to their socio-economic indicators and eliminate possible confounding factors,
characteristics, we first compared them regarding clinical we put the variables all together in the regression
severity. For this purpose, the tumor stage indicator, equation and applied the “Backward conditional”
known for its objectivity and in formativeness, was used. procedure. The achieved percentage of correct answers
The results of the performed Fisher-Freeman-Halton from the classification table was 86.5. Thus, in the final
exact test show no statistically significant difference in version of the equation (p<0.001), five of the studied
the frequency distribution of patients by the categories of indicators remain – marital status, type of work, presence
the tumor stage indicator, meaning that the two groups of stress, smoking and age. The obtained results give us
were statistically equal in terms of clinical severity. This reason to claim that, compared to unmarried, widowers
is a good prerequisite for correctly performing the have about 70 times higher risk of dead, married – about
subsequent comparisons. 47, and divorced – about 7 times. Mainly mental versus

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