Mental vulnerability and survival after cancer.
BACKGROUND
It has been hypothesized that personality traits affect survival after cancer, but studies have produced inconsistent results. This study examined the association between mental vulnerability and survival after cancer in Denmark in a prospective cohort study.


METHODS
Between 1976 and 2001, 12733 residents of Copenhagen completed a questionnaire eliciting information on a 12-item mental vulnerability scale, as well as various personal data. Follow-up in the Danish Cancer Registry until 2003 identified 884 incident cases of primary cancer, and follow-up for death from the date of cancer diagnosis until 2003 identified 382 deaths. Mental vulnerability scores were divided into 4 approximately equal-sized groups. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate the hazard ratio (HR) of all-cause mortality.


RESULTS
Multivariate HR for all-cause mortality for persons in the highest category of mental vulnerability compared with those at the lowest was 1.1 (95% confidence interval = 0.9-1.5).


CONCLUSIONS
We found no support for the hypothesis that mental vulnerability is associated with survival after cancer diagnosis.
Nakaya
Naoki
N
Department of Psychosocial Cancer Research, Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Bidstrup
Pernille E
PE
Eplov
Lene F
LF
Saito-Nakaya
Kumi
K
Kuriyama
Shinichi
S
Tsuji
Ichiro
I
Uchitomi
Yosuke
Y
Johansen
Christoffer
C
D015331:Cohort Studies; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D010551:Personality; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012042:Registries; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*