Combined Impact of Health Behaviors on Mortality in Low-Income Americans.

INTRODUCTION: African Americans and low-income whites have higher mortality than the U.S. general population. This study prospectively investigated the combined influence of major lifestyle factors and poverty on mortality in this vulnerable population. METHODS: Data were collected in 2002-2009 from 79,101 Southern Community Cohort Study participants, of which 67% were African American and 55% had household incomes <$15,000. Mortality outcomes were identified from the National Death Index though December 31, 2011 (data analyzed in 2014-2015). Healthy behavior scores were created based on tobacco smoking, alcohol intake, diet, physical activity, and sedentary time. The primary analysis was performed based on the score created by counting each participant as having met/not met public health guidelines for each behavior. RESULTS: Healthy behavior scores were associated with reduced cancer, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality. Associations were stronger for whites than African Americans: hazard ratios for all-cause mortality comparing participants meeting four or five guidelines versus participants meeting zero were 0.41 (95% CI=0.30, 0.55) for African American men; 0.36 (95% CI=0.24, 0.55) for white men; 0.46 (95% CI=0.36, 0.59) for African American women; and 0.27 (95% CI=0.18, 0.43) for white women. The association between healthy lifestyle and all-cause mortality was weaker among those with incomes <$15,000 than those with higher income, particularly in men (p<0.05 for interaction). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates the importance of health behaviors on mortality among all groups, but highlights the need for additional research to identify factors contributing to high risk of mortality among low-income and African American populations.

Healthy Eating and Risks of Total and Cause-Specific Death among Low-Income Populations of African-Americans and Other Adults in the Southeastern United States: A Prospective Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: A healthy diet, as defined by the US Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA), has been associated with lower morbidity and mortality from major chronic diseases in studies conducted in predominantly non-Hispanic white individuals. It is unknown whether this association can be extrapolated to African-Americans and low-income populations. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We examined the associations of adherence to the DGA with total and cause-specific mortality in the Southern Community Cohort Study, a prospective study that recruited 84,735 American adults, aged 40-79 y, from 12 southeastern US states during 2002-2009, mostly through community health centers that serve low-income populations. The present analysis included 50,434 African-Americans, 24,054 white individuals, and 3,084 individuals of other racial/ethnic groups, among whom 42,759 participants had an annual household income less than US$15,000. Usual dietary intakes were assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire at baseline. Adherence to the DGA was measured by the Healthy Eating Index (HEI), 2010 and 2005 editions (HEI-2010 and HEI-2005, respectively). During a mean follow-up of 6.2 y, 6,906 deaths were identified, including 2,244 from cardiovascular disease, 1,794 from cancer, and 2,550 from other diseases. A higher HEI-2010 score was associated with lower risks of disease death, with adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) of 0.80 (95% CI, 0.73-0.86) for all-disease mortality, 0.81 (95% CI, 0.70-0.94) for cardiovascular disease mortality, 0.81 (95% CI, 0.69-0.95) for cancer mortality, and 0.77 (95% CI, 0.67-0.88) for other disease mortality, when comparing the highest quintile with the lowest (all p-values for trend < 0.05). Similar inverse associations between HEI-2010 score and mortality were observed regardless of sex, race, and income (all p-values for interaction > 0.50). Several component scores in the HEI-2010, including whole grains, dairy, seafood and plant proteins, and ratio of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids, showed significant inverse associations with total mortality. HEI-2005 score was also associated with lower disease mortality, with a HR of 0.86 (95% CI, 0.79-0.93) when comparing extreme quintiles. Given the observational study design, however, residual confounding cannot be completely ruled out. In addition, future studies are needed to evaluate the generalizability of these findings to African-Americans of other socioeconomic status. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed, to our knowledge for the first time, that adherence to the DGA was associated with lower total and cause-specific mortality in a low-income population, including a large proportion of African-Americans, living in the southeastern US.

Suicides, homicides, accidents, and other external causes of death among blacks and whites in the Southern Community Cohort Study.

Prior studies of risk factors associated with external causes of death have been limited in the number of covariates investigated and external causes examined. Herein, associations between numerous demographic, lifestyle, and health-related factors and the major causes of external mortality, such as suicide, homicide, and accident, were assessed prospectively among 73,422 black and white participants in the Southern Community Cohort Study (SCCS). Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated in multivariate regression analyses using the Cox proportional hazards model. Men compared with women (HR = 2.32; 95% CI: 1.87-2.89), current smokers (HR = 1.74; 95% CI: 1.40-2.17), and unemployed/never employed participants at the time of enrollment (HR = 1.67; 95% CI 1.38-2.02) had increased risk of dying from all external causes, with similarly elevated HRs for suicide, homicide, and accidental death among both blacks and whites. Blacks compared with whites had lower risk of accidental death (HR = 0.46; 95% CI: 0.38-0.57) and suicide (HR = 0.55; 95% CI: 0.31-0.99). Blacks and whites in the SCCS had comparable risks of homicide death (HR = 1.05; 95% CI: 0.63-1.76); however, whites in the SCCS had unusually high homicide rates compared with all whites who were resident in the 12 SCCS states, while black SCCS participants had homicide rates similar to those of all blacks residing in the SCCS states. Depression was the strongest risk factor for suicide, while being married was protective against death from homicide in both races. Being overweight/obese at enrollment was associated with reduced risks in all external causes of death, and the number of comorbid conditions was a risk factor for iatrogenic deaths. Most risk factors identified in earlier studies of external causes of death were confirmed in the SCCS cohort, in spite of the low SES of SCCS participants. Results from other epidemiologic cohorts are needed to confirm the novel findings identified in this study.

Five-year reliability of key demographic and life history data collected from self-respondents and next-of-kin.

The ability of study participants or their next-of-kin to provide basic demographic and life history data is of critical importance in epidemiologic studies and government surveys. Most interview studies to date have focused on the reliability of these variables either as self-reported over short periods of time (<2 years) or as reported by the next-of-kin concurrently with the study participant. In a unique reinterview study, the authors examine the concordance of responses 5 years after the initial interview among 196 surviving study participants and 107 next-of-kin respondents of participants who died after the first interview. The reliability of demographic, anthropometric, reproductive, and residential history questions was high overall, with most κ and Spearman rank-correlation coefficients being above 0.80 for both self-respondents and next-of-kin at reinterview in 1985. In particular, almost perfect agreement was observed for year of birth, religion raised, number of children, and age at first birth, whereas agreement was lowest for childhood residential history. Contrary to expectation, the next-of-kin responses were generally as reliable as those of the original participants themselves 5 years after the initial study, providing further support for the usefulness of surrogate respondents in collecting demographic and life history information in epidemiologic investigations when no other source is available.

A prospective study of statin use and mortality among 67,385 blacks and whites in the Southeastern United States.

PURPOSE: The primary objective of this study is to examine the race-specific associations between statin use and overall mortality, as well as cardiovascular and cancer mortality, among blacks and whites in the Southeastern United States (US). Little is known about these associations in blacks. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The Southern Community Cohort Study is an ongoing, prospective cohort study, which enrolled from 2002 through 2009 nearly 86,000 participants aged 40-79 years. We used Cox regression models to estimate race-specific hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for overall and cause-specific mortality associated with statin use based on self-reported hypercholesterolemia and treatment at cohort entry. Mean age at cohort entry was 51.4 years in blacks (n=48,825) and 53.5 years in whites (n=18,560). Sixty-one percent of participants were women. Whites were more likely to have self-reported hypercholesterolemia (40% versus 27%, P<0.001), and to report being treated with either statins (52% versus 47%, P<0.001) or combination lipid therapy (9% versus 4%, P<0.001) compared with blacks, regardless of sex. During follow-up (median: 5.6 years) 5,199 participants died. Compared with untreated hypercholesterolemic individuals, statin use was associated with reduced all-cause mortality (adjusted HR [aHR] 0.86; 95% CI 0.77-0.95) and cardiovascular disease mortality overall (aHR 0.75; 95% CI 0.64-0.89) and among whites (aHR 0.67; 95% CI 0.50-0.90), blacks (aHR, 0.80; 95% CI 0.65-0.98), men (aHR 0.70; 95% CI 0.55-0.90), and women (aHR 0.79; 95% CI 0.63-0.99) (P>0.05 for race and sex interaction). Statin use was not associated with cancer mortality overall or in subgroup analyses. CONCLUSION: Regardless of race or sex, self-reported statin use was linked to reduced all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality. However, factors contributing to the modestly lower statin use and markedly lower prevalence of self-reported hypercholesterolemia among blacks remain to be determined.

Risk of cancer among workers exposed to trichloroethylene: analysis of three Nordic cohort studies.

BACKGROUND: Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a widely used chlorinated solvent with demonstrated carcinogenicity in animal assays. Some epidemiologic studies have reported increased risk of cancer of the kidney, cervix, liver and biliary passages, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and esophageal adenocarcinoma. METHODS: We established a pooled cohort, including 5553 workers with individual documented exposure to TCE in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. Study participants were monitored for the urinary TCE metabolite trichloroacetic acid from 1947 to 1989 and followed for cancer. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) were calculated based on cancer incidence rates in the three national populations. Cox proportionate hazard analyses were used for internal comparisons. Tests of statistical significance are two-sided. RESULTS: Overall, 997 cases of cancer (n = 683 in men; n = 314 in women) were identified during 154 778 person-years of follow-up. We observed statistically significant elevated standardized incidence ratios for primary liver cancer (1.93; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.19 to 2.95) and cervical cancer (2.31; 95% CI = 1.32 to 3.75). The standardized incidence ratio for kidney cancer was 1.01 (95% CI = 0.70 to 1.42) based on 32 cases; we did not observe a statistically significant increased risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (SIR = 1.26; 95% CI = 0.89 to 1.73) or esophageal adenocarcinoma (SIR = 1.84; 95% CI = 0.65 to 4.65). Tobacco- and alcohol-associated cancers were not statistically significantly increased. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest TCE exposure is possibly associated with an increased risk for liver cancer. The relationship between TCE exposure and risks of cancers of low incidence and those with confounding by lifestyle and other factors not known in our cohort require further study.

Association between plasma PFOA and PFOS levels and total cholesterol in a middle-aged Danish population.

Perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) are used in a variety of consumer products and have been detected worldwide in human blood. Recent studies mainly of highly exposed populations have indicated that PFOA and PFOS may affect serum cholesterol levels, but the magnitude of the effect may be inconsistent across exposure levels. The aim of the present cross-sectional study was to investigate the association between plasma PFOA and PFOS and total cholesterol in a general, middle-aged Danish population. The study population comprised 753 individuals (663 men and 90 women), 50-65 years of age, nested within a Danish cohort of 57,053 participants. Blood samples were taken from all cohort members at enrolment (1993-1997) and stored in a biobank at -150°C. Plasma levels of PFOA and PFOS and serum levels of total cholesterol were measured. The associations between plasma PFOA and PFOS levels and total cholesterol levels were analysed by generalized linear models, both crude and adjusted for potential confounders. We observed statistically significant positive associations between both perfluorinated compounds and total cholesterol, e.g. a 4.4 [95% CI  =  1.1-7.8] higher concentration of total cholesterol (mg/dL) per interquartile range of PFOA plasma level. Sex and prevalent diabetes appeared to modify the association between PFOA and PFOS, respectively, and cholesterol. In conclusion, this study indicated positive associations between plasma PFOA and PFOS levels and total cholesterol in a middle-aged Danish population, although whether the observed pattern of results reflects a causal association is unclear.

False positives in cancer epidemiology.

BACKGROUND: A recent attempt to estimate the false-positive rate for cancer epidemiology studies is based on agents in International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) category 3 (agent not classifiable as to its carcinogenicity to humans) in the IARC Monographs Program. METHODS: The estimation method is critiqued regarding biases caused by its reliance on the IARC classification criteria for assessing carcinogenic potential. RESULTS: The privileged position given to epidemiologic studies by the IARC criteria ensures that the percentage of positive epidemiologic studies for an agent will depend strongly on the IARC category to which the agent is assigned. Because IARC category 3 is composed of agents with the lowest-assessed carcinogenic potential to which the estimation approach in question could be applied, a spuriously low estimated false-positive rate was necessarily the outcome of this approach. CONCLUSIONS: Tendentious estimation approaches like that employed will by necessity produce spuriously low and misleading false positive rates. IMPACT: The recently reported estimates of the false-positive rate in cancer epidemiology are seriously biased and contribute nothing substantive to the literature on the very real problems related to false-positive findings in epidemiology.

Incidence and predictors of end stage renal disease among low-income blacks and whites.

We evaluated whether black race is associated with higher incidence of End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) among a cohort of blacks and whites of similar, generally low socioeconomic status, and whether risk factor patterns differ among blacks and whites and explain the poorly understood racial disparity in ESRD. Incident diagnoses of ESRD among 79,943 black and white participants in the Southern Community Cohort Study (SCCS) were ascertained by linkage with the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) from 2002 through 2009. Person-years of follow up were calculated from date of entry into the SCCS until date of ESRD diagnosis, date of death, or September 1, 2009, whichever occurred first. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for incident ESRD among black and white participants in relation to baseline characteristics. After 329,003 person-years of follow-up, 687 incident cases of ESRD were identified in the cohort. The age-adjusted ESRD incidence rate was 273 (per 100,000) among blacks, 3.5-fold higher than the rate of 78 among whites. Risk factors for ESRD included male sex (HR = 1.6; 95% CI 1.4-1.9), low income (HR = 1.5; 95% CI 1.2-1.8 for income below vs. above $15,000), smoking (HR = 1.2; 95% CI 1.02-1.4) and histories of diabetes (HRs increasing to 9.4 (95% CI 7.4-11.9) among those with ≥20 years diabetes duration) and hypertension (HR = 2.9; 95% CI 2.3-3.7). Patterns and magnitudes of association were virtually identical among blacks and whites. After adjustment for these risk factors, blacks continued to have a higher risk for ESRD (HR = 2.4; 95% CI = 1.9-3.0) relative to whites. The black-white disparity in risk of ESRD was attenuated but not eliminated after control for known risk factors in a closely socioeconomically matched cohort. Further research characterizing biomedical factors, including CKD progression, in ESRD occurrence in these two racial groups is needed.

Cancer incidence among workers at a satellite manufacturing facility.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate cancer incidence overall and renal cancer in particular among workers at the Valley Forge satellite manufacturing complex in Pennsylvania. A previous mortality study observed a slightly elevated risk estimate for brain cancer. METHODS: A cohort of 27,586 workers, employed between 1962 and 2008 and alive in 1990 when cancer follow-up began, was investigated. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) were calculated. RESULTS: A total of 4303 incident cancers were diagnosed. The SIRs were significantly reduced for all cancers (0.88; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.85 to 0.90) and several site-specific cancers. The renal cancer SIR was 1.00 (95% CI, 0.84 to 1.19) and the brain cancer SIR was 1.17 (95% CI, 0.90 to 1.49). CONCLUSIONS: This cancer incidence study of satellite manufacturing workers found no convincing evidence of increased cancer risk overall, or for renal or brain cancer in particular.

Obesity and all-cause mortality among black adults and white adults.

In recent pooled analyses among whites and Asians, mortality was shown to rise markedly with increasing body mass index (BMI; weight (kg)/height (m)(2)), but much less is known about this association among blacks. This study prospectively examined all-cause mortality in relation to BMI among 22,014 black males, 9,343 white males, 30,810 black females, and 14,447 white females, aged 40-79 years, from the Southern Community Cohort Study, an epidemiologic cohort of largely low-income participants in 12 southeastern US states. Participants enrolled in the cohort from 2002 to 2009 and were followed up to 8.9 years. Hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals for mortality were obtained from sex- and race-stratified Cox proportional hazards models in association with BMI at cohort entry, adjusting for age, education, income, cigarette smoking, and alcohol consumption. Elevated BMI was associated with increased mortality among whites (hazard ratios for BMI >40 vs. 20-24.9 = 1.37 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.02, 1.84) and 1.47 (95% CI: 1.15, 1.89) for white males and white females, respectively) but not significantly among blacks (hazard ratios = 1.13 (95% CI: 0.89, 1.43) and 0.87 (95% CI: 0.72, 1.04) for black males and black females, respectively). In this large cohort, obesity in mid-to-late adulthood among blacks was not associated with the same excess mortality risk seen among whites.

Review of epidemiologic studies of dietary acrylamide intake and the risk of cancer.

Conjectured associations between dietary acrylamide intake and cancer have been evaluated in more than 15 epidemiologic studies examining almost every major cancer site. We have critically reviewed the epidemiologic studies of estimated dietary acrylamide exposure and cancer. As substantially greater acrylamide exposure occurs through tobacco smoke than dietary exposure, we present the results separately for never smokers or adjusted statistically for smoking status, where possible. After an extensive examination of the published literature, we found no consistent or credible evidence that dietary acrylamide increases the risk of any type of cancer in humans, either overall or among nonsmokers. In particular, the collective evidence suggests that a high level of dietary acrylamide intake is not a risk factor for breast, endometrial, or ovarian cancers, which have generated particular interest because of a conjectured hormonal mechanism of acrylamide. Moreover, the absence of a positive association between smoking and ovarian and endometrial cancers suggests that any association of these cancers with the much lower, more sporadic dietary acrylamide intake is unlikely. In conclusion, epidemiologic studies of dietary acrylamide intake have failed to demonstrate an increased risk of cancer. In fact, the sporadically and slightly increased and decreased risk ratios reported in more than two dozen papers examined in this review strongly suggest the pattern one would expect to find for a true null association over the course of a series of trials. Therefore, continued epidemiologic investigation of acrylamide and cancer risk appears to be a misguided research priority.

Delayed breast implant reconstruction: a 10-year prospective study.

Studies of complications following reconstructive surgery with implants among women with breast cancer are needed. As the, to our knowledge, first prospective long-term study we evaluated the occurrence of complications following delayed breast reconstruction separately for one- and two-stage procedures. From the Danish Registry for Plastic Surgery of the Breast, which has prospectively registered data for women undergoing breast implantations since 1999, we identified 559 women without a history of radiation therapy undergoing 592 delayed breast reconstructions following breast cancer during the period 1999 to 2006; 239 one-stage procedures and 353 two-stage procedures. The postoperative course through November 2009 was evaluated by cumulative incidence adjusting for competing risks for the selected outcomes; hematoma, infection, seroma, implant rupture, severe capsular contracture (modified Baker III and IV), extrusion of the implant, asymmetry/displacement of the implant, any complication, and reoperation. These analyses were performed both overall and separately according to type of procedure (one- or two-stage). The overall 10-year risk estimates were 68.1% for any complication, 7.7% for severe capsular contracture, 32.3% for displacement/asymmetry of the implant and 38.6% for reoperation. When comparing one- and two-stage procedures, we observed significantly higher risk estimates for infection, seroma and extrusion of the implant following two-stage procedures, whereas the risk of reoperation was significantly higher following the one-stage procedure. For both procedures, the majority of reoperations were due to asymmetry or displacement of the implant. In conclusion, non-radiated one- and two-stage delayed breast implant reconstructions are associated with substantial risks of complications and reoperation which should be taken into consideration in the planning of breast reconstruction.

Cancer mortality among aircraft manufacturing workers: an extended follow-up.

OBJECTIVE: Extended cancer follow-up among 77,943 aircraft workers. METHODS: Comprehensive exposure information enabled detailed classification of trichloroethylene (TCE), perchloroethylene (PCE), mixed solvents, and chromates exposure among these workers. RESULTS: Exposure to TCE, PCE, mixed solvents or chromates was not associated with increased cancer risk overall or for most cancer sites. Elevated rates compared with the general population were seen for non-Hodgkin lymphoma for PCE exposure, and colon and testicular cancers and multiple myeloma for mixed solvents exposure. Internal cohort analyses, however, showed no significant trends of increasing risk for these cancers with increasing years of exposure to TCE, PCE or mixed solvents. CONCLUSION: This large, long-term cohort study with comprehensive exposure assessment found no consistent evidence of increased cancer risk overall or by site among aircraft workers, including those with long-term exposure to TCE, PCE, and mixed solvents.

Renal cancer paradox: higher incidence but not higher mortality among African-Americans.

To compare temporal trends in the incidence and mortality of renal cell cancer among blacks and whites for clues to etiologic differences. We examined trends in age-adjusted and age-specific Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results incidence and US mortality rates for renal cancer for 1973 through 2007, as well as nephrectomy rates from surgery codes for kidney cancer for 2000 through 2007. For nearly four decades, incidence rates for renal cell cancer have been rising more rapidly among blacks than whites, leading to a shift in excess from among whites to among blacks, almost entirely accounted for by an excess of localized disease. The incidence patterns are puzzling, as localized renal cell cancer is primarily detected incidentally by imaging, to which blacks have historically had less access. In contrast to the incidence patterns, there has been an unexpected convergence of renal cancer mortality rates, which have been virtually identical among blacks and whites since the early 1990 s. Nephrectomy rates, regardless of stage, were lower among blacks than among whites, despite almost identical cause-specific survival rates in both races. The identical mortality patterns, combined with higher and more rapidly increasing incidence and lower rates of nephrectomies among blacks, suggest that renal cell cancer may tend to be a less aggressive tumor in blacks. This hypothesis is supported by the favorable stage distribution among blacks and their higher survival for distant and unstaged cancer. Further research into the enigmatic descriptive epidemiology and the biology and natural history of renal cell cancer may shed light on the etiology of this malignancy and its more frequent occurrence among black Americans.

The clinical course of immediate breast implant reconstruction after breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: The number of women suitable for breast conserving treatment as well as immediate reconstruction after breast cancer has been increasing, and studies of complications hereafter are needed. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The cohort was identified in the prospective database of the Danish Registry for Plastic Surgery of the Breast during the period 1999 to 2006; 167 women with 189 immediate breast reconstructions (40 one-stage and 149 two-stage procedures) after breast cancer without a history of radiation therapy. The women were followed for complications until November 2009. Cumulative incidence risks were computed for infection, hematoma, seroma, severe capsular contracture (modified Baker III and IV), extrusion of the implant, implant rupture, asymmetry/displacement of the implant, any complication, and reoperation. In addition, we compared the postoperative course of immediate two-stage procedures with delayed two-stage procedures. RESULTS: The overall eight-year risk estimates for the immediate procedures were 76.4% for any complication, 5.3% for severe capsular contracture, 29.5% for displacement/asymmetry of the implant and 40.6% for reoperation. Significantly higher risk for reoperation was observed after immediate one-stage than after two-stage procedures. For immediate two-stage procedures acute complications such as infection, seroma and hematoma were higher in the expansion period than after the second planned surgery. Higher risks for acute complications were observed after immediate than after delayed two-stage procedures. CONCLUSION: Immediate breast implant reconstruction was found to have substantial risks of complications in non-radiated women, which should be considered in the guidance of breast cancer patients before choosing reconstructive procedure.