Soria S, Buckberry J. The impact of industrialization on malignant neoplastic disease of bone in England: A study of medieval and industrial samples.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PALEOPATHOLOGY 2022;
38:32-40. [PMID:
35753114 DOI:
10.1016/j.ijpp.2022.05.007]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2021] [Revised: 04/20/2022] [Accepted: 05/31/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
The increasing prevalence of malignant disease has been associated with shifts in environmental, socioeconomic, and lifestyle risk factors as well as increased adult lifespan. We examine the relationship between malignant neoplasms affecting bone, age and industrialization.
MATERIALS
Pre-existing skeletal data from 11 medieval (1066-1547, n = 8973) and 14 industrial (1700-1890, n = 4748) cemeteries (N = 13,721) from England.
METHODS
Context number, sex, age-at-death, evidence of skeletal malignancy, and diagnosis were collated. The data were compared using chi square, Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests and logistic regression (α = 0.01).
RESULTS
There was a statistically significant increase in skeletal malignancy from 0.06 % in the medieval sample to 0.36 in the industrial sample (p < 0.001). Age had a strong relationship with malignancy (p = 0.003), sex did not (p = 0.464). Logistic regression revealed that time-period (p < 0.001) was a stronger predictor of skeletal malignancy than age-at-death (p = 0.002).
CONCLUSION
Our results confirm that even with the temporal increase in adult human lifespan the increase of malignant neoplasms of bone between the medieval and industrial time periods is still statistically significant.
SIGNIFICANCE
The augmented exposure to carcinogens and pollution during the Industrial Revolution had a strong effect on an individual's susceptibility to developing malignant disease of bone.
LIMITATIONS
This meta-analysis relies upon previously gathered data and diagnosis from a large number of researchers and did not include radiographic or CT screening. Only malignant neoplasms that affected bone could be included.
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
Increasing excavation and analysis of post-medieval cemeteries will provide more data. Multimethod approaches (radiography, CT, Micro-CT and histology) are encouraged.
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