DIFFERENTIAL CANCER MORBIDITY TOWARDS YEAR 2000 IN A POPULATION DISEASE OUTLOOK ACROSS EUROPE .2. THE MALE GENDER

The conception of new, 'avoidable' life style diseases in affluent Wes tern societies is largely based upon observations in groups of middle- aged urban males with mortality as the major end-point. This applies t o cancer; too, and studies of morbidity, where cancer is pur within th e overall disease spectrum, are called for as a necessary intermediary stage for hypothesis generation and initiation of evaluative and inte rventive epidemiological projects in the community. Here also the cond itions and circumstances that determine health and well being that is, salutogenetic factors, come increasingly into focus. We made a compar ative analysis of the total hospitalization for somatic diseases durin g 1986-1987 at the Linkoping University Hospital in the county of Oste rgotland, Sweden and the both complementary and commensurable Heraklio n University Hospital on Crete. They are representative of their respe ctive European situations, and are the only somatic hospitals in their regions. Large differences were found with lower morbidity in the mor e 'Arcadian: rural settings. The results provide valuable data on trai ts and patterns between earlier surveys such as the Seven Countries st udy and today. We have earlier reported on the findings from the femal e group of the two populations, and here wish to concentrate on the ma les. In particular; cancer is compared with the both prominent and 'ar chetypical' forms of male ill-health that are comprised by cardiovascu lar diseases and accidents. We discuss some of the salutogenetic as we ll as pathogenetic factors that call for closer study in the next stag e of our project, whose emblem of Ariadne's thread we feel also has a strong bearing on the masculine gender.