Lifestyle-related factors and cancer incidence in men: a public health assessment based on a 'healthy lifestyle score'

Abstract

To evaluate the effects of combined lifestyle-related factors and risk of cancer incidence among adult men in urban Shanghai. Information was obtained from 60 817 men in the Shanghai Men's Health Study (2002 - 2006) program and 2033 incident cancers who were confirmed at the end of 2009. A healthy lifestyle score (HLS) system was developed, based on five lifestyle-related factors, and participants were scored one point for each of the healthy behaviour: never smoked, alcohol intake less than 1 drink/day, under normal weight range (18.5 - 27.9 kg/m(2)), physical activity (≥ 54 Met-hours/week), fruit and vegetable intake ≥ 451 g/day, the else would score as zero. The total score would range from zero to five. Cox regression model was used to evaluate the associations between combined lifestyle-related factors and the cancer incidence. Compared to men having scores as zero or one, the hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) for men with two, three, four, five health behaviour scores were 0.77 (95%CI: 0.66, 0.90), 0.67 (95%CI: 0.58, 0.78), 0.56 (95%CI: 0.47, 0.65), 0.51 (95%CI: 0.42, 0.62), respectively. The population attributable risks for cancer incidence was 10.4% for those having scores less than 3 items. Never smoked, moderate alcohol intake, maintaining normal weight, being physically fit, and having enough daily fruit and vegetable intake were associated with lower risk of total cancer incidence in men. Our data showed that healthy lifestyle could significantly benefit the public health programs of the population.