Table 1 Baseline characteristics of 290 pairs of study participants
Variable | Patients | Controls | P valuec |
|---|---|---|---|
Age (years) | 0.069 | ||
Mean ± standard deviation | 49.9 ± 10.3 | 48.3 ± 10.8 | |
Sex | 1.000 | ||
Men | 236 (81.4) | 236 (81.4) | |
Women | 54 (18.6) | 54 (18.6) | |
Ethnicity | 1.000 | ||
Chinese | 273 (94.1) | 273 (94.1) | |
Malay | 15 (5.2) | 15 (5.2) | |
Indian | 2 (0.7) | 2 (0.7) | |
Marital status | 0.519 | ||
Not married | 47 (16.3) | 60 (20.7) | |
Widowed | 4 (1.4) | 4 (1.4) | |
Divorced | 11 (3.8) | 8 (2.8) | |
Currently married | 228 (78.6) | 218 (75.2) | |
Education | <0.001 | ||
None | 6 (2.1) | 2 (0.7) | |
Primary | 52 (17.9) | 11 (3.8) | |
Secondary | 117 (40.3) | 70 (24.1) | |
Tertiary and higher | 115 (39.7) | 207 (71.4) | |
Chinese dialecta | 0.051 | ||
Cantonese | 46 (16.9) | 61 (22.3) | |
Hakkas | 25 (9.2) | 21 (7.7) | |
Hokkien | 125 (45.8) | 96 (35.2) | |
Teo Chew | 55 (20.2) | 60 (22.0) | |
Othersb | 22 (8.1) | 35 (12.8) | |
WHO type of NPC | |||
I | 2 (0.7) | NA | |
II | 55 (19.0) | NA | |
III | 231 (79.6) | NA | |
Unknown | 2 (0.7) | NA |