title: A prospective association between quality of life and risk for cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The contributions of social and especially of psychological factors to cancer development have been questioned. The goal of this study was to investigate, in a longitudinal setting, the prospective associations between self-reported measures of social relations, subjective health (physical and mental) and quality of life and the risk for cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  In 1993, 4493 people in the Copenhagen Perinatal Cohort were asked to rate their social relations, their physical and mental health and their quality of life. The study population was followed until the end of 2006 for registration of cancer in the Danish Hospital Discharge Register.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the follow-up period, cancer was diagnosed in 102 people. When compared with people with very good quality of life, those who rated their quality of life as poor had a hazard ratio of 1.90 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1-3.4) for cancer, and those who rated their quality of life as good had a hazard ratio of 1.31 (95% CI, 0.8-2.2), after adjustment for age, sex, income, lifestyle factors and number of health problems. Self-rated physical and mental health were significantly associated with the risk for cancer, but the estimates became non-significant after adjustment for confounding factors. Social relations were not associated with the risk for cancer.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Broad assessment of general well-being, self-rated as global quality of life, appears to be a better predictor of cancer risk than more specific information on social relations and health.
authors: National Institute of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Copenhagen K. tfm@niph.dk
authors: Trine
authors: T
authors: Flensborg-Madsen
authors: Christoffer
authors: C
authors: Johansen
authors: Morten
authors: M
authors: Grønbæk
authors: Erik Lykke
authors: EL
authors: Mortensen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D012931:Social Environment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires