Incidence of gastric cancer and prevalence of chronic gastritis in outpatients: comparison between two geographical areas in Finland.

We present some evidence that there exists a positive relationship between the incidence of gastric cancer and the prevalence rate of chronic gastritis, regarding the time trends and geography of these diseases in Finland. Both gastric cancer and chronic gastritis have declined in occurrence during the last 15 years, and there exists a similar geographic distribution of these diseases in Finland on the north-south axis: both are more prevalent in Lapland than in Southern Finland. The distribution of the socioeconomic conditions in Finland also shows a north-south axis: the proportion of people with low social class, number of children (birth rate) per household is higher, and the yearly income on average is lower in Lapland than in Southern Finland. We conclude that the epidemiology of chronic gastritis and gastric cancer show similar epidemiological features, regarding at least the time trends and geography of these diseases in Finland.