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Physical activity at work and the risk of chronic pancreatitis
B D Breuer-Katschinski1, J Bracht, S Tietjen-Harms
1Abteilung für Gastroenterologie, Medizinische Universitätsklinik, Essen, Germany.
Objective:
To examine the hypothesis that low social status in chronic pancreatitis is accounted for by high physical activity at work.
Design:
A case-control study comparing 50 patients with an established diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis with 100 age- and sex-matched community controls.
Results:
There was a significant association between a high level of physical activity and chronic pancreatitis risk, the relative risk being 3.9 (1.3-11.7). After controlling for age, sex, smoking and alcohol intake, a high amount of calorie expenditure during work was still significantly associated with chronic pancreatitis risk, the relative risk being 4.5 (1.2-17.7). When social class was controlled for physical activity the increased risk for low social class status disappeared.
Conclusion:
This study suggests that the social class gradient may be explained by the amount of manual labour.