Is Following a Cancer-Protective Lifestyle Linked to Reduced Cancer Mortality Risk?

Flurina Suter; Nena Karavasiloglou; Julia Braun; Giulia Pestoni; Sabine Rohrmann

doi:10.3389/ijph.2023.1605610

Is Following a Cancer-Protective Lifestyle Linked to Reduced Cancer Mortality Risk?

Int J Public Health. 2023 Feb 14:68:1605610. doi: 10.3389/ijph.2023.1605610. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Flurina Suter¹, Nena Karavasiloglou¹, Julia Braun², Giulia Pestoni^{1

3}, Sabine Rohrmann¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Chronic Disease Epidemiology, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute (EBPI), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
² Divisions of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Prevention Institute, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
³ Nutrition Group, Health Department, Swiss Distance University of Applied Sciences, Zurich, Switzerland.

Abstract

Objectives: This study investigates the association between a cancer protective lifestyle (defined based on the revised World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) cancer prevention recommendations) and mortality in Switzerland. Methods: Based on the cross-sectional, population-based National Nutrition Survey, menuCH (n = 2057), adherence to the WCRF/AICR recommendations was assessed via a score. Quasipoisson regression models were fitted to examine the association of adherence to the WCRF/AICR recommendations with mortality at the Swiss district-level. Spatial autocorrelation was tested with global Moran's I. Integrated nested Laplace approximation models were fitted when significant spatial autocorrelation was detected. Results: Participants with higher cancer prevention scores had a significant decrease in all-cause (relative risk 0.95; 95% confidence interval 0.92, 0.99), all-cancer (0.93; 0.89, 0.97), upper aero-digestive tract cancer (0.87; 0.78, 0.97), and prostate cancer (0.81; 0.68, 0.94) mortality, compared to those with lower scores. Conclusion: The inverse association between adherence to the WCRF/AICR recommendations and mortality points out the potential of the lifestyle recommendations to decrease mortality and especially the burden of cancer in Switzerland.

Keywords: WCRF/AICR recommendations; cancer mortality; cancer prevention; global Moran’s I; spatial analysis.

MeSH terms

Cross-Sectional Studies
Ethnicity
Humans
Life Style
Male
Neoplasms* / prevention & control
Risk

Grants and funding

The current study was funded by the Swiss Cancer League, project number KLS-5096-08-2020, project title “Can living well save my life? Cancer-protective lifestyle prevalence—and its association with mortality—across Swiss language regions.”