UMEROUS statistical investigations have in-N dicated that smoking and excessive drinking play a role in the etiology of certain diseases. Smoking is considered to be one of the causes of cancer of the respiratory tract and is also suspected to increase the risk for myocardial infarction.6. l1 Excessive drinking, mostly of hard liquors, has been found to affect the development of cancer of the mouth, larynx, and esophagus.10912,13 In view of the available evidence, it was of interest to study the incidence of cancer and coronary artery disease among a population group consisting mainly of nonsmokers and nondrinkers. The Seventh-Day Adventists, a religious group of about 300,000 members in the United States, represent such a group of individuals since their religion prohibits smoking and drinking.
The purpose of this study was, first, to review admission records of Seventh-Day Adventist hospitals and to determine the relative admission rates of Seventh-Day Adventists with a given disease compared to all other admissions and, second, to obtain data on the past and present smoking and drinking habits, as well as other background data on Seventh-Day Adventists. This investigation is regarded as preliminary to a large scale prospective study currently being done by one of us (F.L.)
METHODOLOGY
The frequency distribution of cancers and coronary artery disease was obtained from the From the Section of Epidemiology, Division of Preventive Medicine,