Worldwide incidence and mortality of bladder cancer and human development index: An ecological study

Background and Objective: Bladder cancer (BC) is the most common cancer of the urinary and genital tract. Many factors, including environmental and socioeconomic factors, also affect the incidence and mortality of BC. The aim of this study was to evaluate the epidemiology of BC incidence and mortality worldwide based on the data extracted in 2018. Materials and Methods: The present study is a descriptive-analytic study that extracts the incidence and mortality rates of cancer from the World Bank in 2018. The incidence and mortality rates and BC distribution maps were drawn for world countries. To analyze data, correlation test and regression tests were used to evaluate the correlation between the incidence and mortality with the Human Development Index (HDI). The statistical analysis was carried out by Stata-14 and the significance level was estimated at the level of 0.05. Results: The results showed a positive and statistically significant correlation between the incidence (r = 0.587, P < 0.0001) and mortality (r = 0.271, P < 0.001) of BC with the HDI index. The results showed that there was a positive correlation between the incidence of BC with Gross national income per 1000 capita (GNI) (r = 0.405, P < 0.001), mean years of schooling (MYS) (r = 0.525, P < 0.001), life expectancy at birth (LEB) (r = 0.566, P < 0.001), and expected years of schooling (EYS) (r = 0.574, P < 0.001). In addition, there was a positive and statistically significant correlation between mortality rate with GNI/1000 capita (r = 0.186, P < 0.01), MYS (r = 0.227, P < 0.01), LEB (r = 0.305, P < 0.01), and EYS (r = 0.250, P < 0.01). Conclusion: Given that the incidence and mortality of BC in high-HDI countries is higher, more research in these countries is needed to identify the factors affecting the incidence of disease in these countries. We can perform prophylactic actions to prevent the incidence and mortality of this cancer by identifying the risk factors of the aforementioned disease.