Date of Award

1-1-2011

Document Type

Campus Access Thesis

Department

Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Sub-Department

Epidemiology

First Advisor

Anwar T Merchant

Abstract

Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer related death in the United States. Past studies have shown an association between vitamin D status and colorectal cancer rate. However, the researcher's objective is to use the cross sectional data collected in the NHANES III, which is a program of studies designed to assess the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the United States, to investigate how low vitamin D status affects the rates of colorectal cancer in the adult population of the United States. To investigate the association between colorectal cancer and vitamin D status, multivariate regression analysis was used. After analysis it was found that people that had been previously diagnosed with colorectal cancer were more likely to have higher levels of serum vitamin D levels than those that had not been diagnosed. This unexpected result was attributed to using prevalence data instead of incidence data.

Rights

© 2011, Tanishah Nellom

Share

COinS