Modifiable risk factors for prostate cancer mortality in London: forty years of follow-up in the Whitehall study.
BACKGROUND
The determinants of prostate cancer--aside from established but non-modifiable risk factors of increased age, black ethnicity, and a positive family history--are poorly understood.


METHODS
We examined the association of a series of baseline socioeconomic, behavioral, and metabolic characteristics with the risk of prostate cancer mortality in a 40-year follow-up of study members from the original Whitehall cohort study. During this period there were 578 prostate cancer deaths in 17,934 men.


RESULTS
After adjustment for a series of baseline covariates, results from proportional hazards regression analyses indicated that marital status (hazard ratio; 95% confidence interval: widowed/divorced vs. married: 1.44; 0.95, 2.18), raised blood cholesterol (tertile 3 vs. 1: 1.35; 1.11, 1.65), and increased physical stature (tertile 3 vs. 1: 1.37; 1.09, 1.74) were associated with death from prostate cancer, although statistical significance at conventional levels was not apparent in all analyses. There was no evidence that physical activity, smoking habit, socio-economic status, component of either blood pressure or diabetes predicted the risk of death from this malignancy herein.


CONCLUSIONS
In the present study, there was a suggestion that marital status, blood cholesterol, and height were risk indices for death from prostate cancer.
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, UK. david.batty@ucl.ac.uk
G David
GD
Batty
Mika
M
Kivimäki
Robert
R
Clarke
George
G
Davey Smith
Martin J
MJ
Shipley
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015987:Effect Modifier, Epidemiologic; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008131:London / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors