An Evaluation of Multiple Behavioral Risk Factors for Cancer in a Working Class, Multi-Ethnic Population

Melody S Goodman,Yi Li,Karen M Emmons,Gary G Bennett,Anne M Stoddard

doi:10.6339/jds.2006.04(3).267

Abstract

Behavioral risk factors for cancer tend to cluster within individuals, which can compound risk beyond that associated with the individual risk factors alone. There has been increasing attention paid to the prevalence of multiple risk factors (MRF) for cancer, and to the importance of designing interventions that help individuals reduce their risks across multiple behaviors simultaneously. The purpose of this paper is to develop methodology to identify an optimal linear combination of multiple risk factors (score function) which would facilitate evaluation of cancer interventions.

Highlights

Despite the considerable biomedical advances of the last half-century, facilitating improvement in lifestyle behaviors remains the most efficacious populationlevel strategy for reducing cancer risk
We can see that increasing the number of fruits and vegetables consumed per week, taking a multivitamin six or more days a week, increasing the amount of physical activity done in a week, and/or decreasing the amount of red meat consumed in a week will increase the score for a participant which in turn means an overall improvement in health behaviors
There was a significant interaction between the amount of fruits and vegetables consumed per week and the amount of red meat consumed per week, sugessting that changing both behaviors simultaneously is better than changing either behavior alone, but the effect of changing both behaviors is not equal to the sum of the individual changes on the multiple risk factors (MRF) score

Summary

Introduction

Despite the considerable biomedical advances of the last half-century, facilitating improvement in lifestyle behaviors remains the most efficacious populationlevel strategy for reducing cancer risk. An additional 30 percent of cancer deaths can be attributed to adult diet (Anonymous, 1996); higher intake of red meat has been associated with increased risk of colon (Sandhu, White and McPherson, 2001) and prostate cancers (Michaud, Augustsson, Rimm, Stampfer, Willett, and Giovannucci 2001). Associated with both physical inactivity and diet is obesity, which may account for between 25-30 percent of cancers of the colon, breast (postmenopausal), endometrium, kidney, and esophagus (Vainio and Bianchini, 2002). Folic acid is protective against colon cancer (Giovannucci, Stampfer, Colditz, Hunter, Fuchs, Rosner, Speizer, and Willett, 1998); long-term multi-vitamin use, in particular has been found to reduce risk for colon cancer, likely because of its folic acid content (Giovannucci et al, 1998)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion