Adhering to the American Cancer Societies Guidelines for preventing cancer reduce the risk of dying from any cause
May
12,
2011
An article published online on April 5, 2011 in the journal Cancer Biomarkers, Epidemiology, and Prevention reveals the finding of American Cancer Society epidemiologists for a protective effect against the risk of dying from cancer, but for all causes of death in people who followed cancer prevention guidelines.
Dr. M McCullough and her colleagues analyzed data from 111,966 nonsmoking men and women enrolled in the Cancer Prevention Study (CPS)-II Nutrition Cohort. Diet and lifestyle questionnaires completed between 1992 and 1993 were scored on a scale of zero to eight according to adherence to American Cancer Society prevention guidelines concerning body mass index, physical activity, and food and alcohol intake.
Over a 14 year follow-up period, 10,369 deaths occurred among the men and 6,613 among the women. Participants with high compliance scores indicating strong adherence to the guidelines with scores of seven or eight had a 42 percent lower risk of dying than those who scored between zero and two. In men with high scores, the risk of dying of cardiovascular disease was 48 percent lower than those with low scores, while for women there was a 58 percent lower risk. For cancer death, the risk associated with high compliance was 30 percent lower for men and 24 percent lower for women. Similar associates were observed for former smokers and those who had never smoked.