A study of a decade of more than 48,000 workers reveals that sticking to optimal lifestyle habits considerably reduces the risk of several major cancers, especially for those who suffer from chronic inflammation.
Study: The association of the 8 essential scores of the life of trajectory scores with the risk of all types of cancer. Image credit: Harbucks / Shutterstock
THE “Life’s essential 8” (Le8) is a complete lifestyle assessment tool designed by the American Heart Association to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by improving life habits.
A team of researchers from China recently assessed the impact of LE8 score trajectories over time on the risk of cancer in people working in a Chinese coal operating company. They found promising results in participants with stable rated scores. The study is published in the journal Scientific relationships.
Background
The “Life’s Essential 8” (Le8) covers eight key lifestyle factors: food quality, physical activity, nicotine exposure, sleep health, body weight, blood sugar, cholesterol levels and blood pressure. It has been found that evaluation and optimization based on the 8 of these factors considerably reduce the risk of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, cerebral vascular accidents and non -alcoholic liver diseases.
Given that lifestyle and risk factors fluctuate over time due to life transitions, health problems or aging, a dynamic assessment of lifestyle factors over a long period of time is considered a more precise alternative to unique assessments that only capture data.
The modeling of the Le8 trajectory – A statistical method using latent mixtures to identify changes in change over time – is a dynamic tool that monitors the lifestyle of individuals and health measures over time to overcome the limits associated with clinical decision -making or the development of lifestyle recommendations based on static data.
An increasing set of evidence indicates that each component Le8 can deeply influence the risk factors associated with the development and progression of cancer. Given these associations, the researchers have hypothesized that long-term membership in Le8 guidelines could be more beneficial for cancer prevention than shorter membership periods or sub-optimal compliance.
With this hypothesis, they designed this study to explore the direct relationship between the LE8 score trajectories over time and the risk of incident cancer in a full prospective cohort study.
Study design
The study included 48,330 participants in the Kailuan study who underwent three health exams between 2006 and 2010 to determine their LE 8 scores. The Kailuan study is a prospective cohort study conducted in Tangshan, China. Since June 2006, the study includes 101,510 active and retired employees of the Kailuan Group Co., LTD., which produces industrial and chemical industrial products.
The participants’ LE 8 scores were calculated using the algorithm proposed by the American Heart Association for the Eight Measures Le8. Based on their composite scores, participants were classified into three levels: high, moderate and low.
Cancer cases have been identified using several methods, including biennial self-assessments, medical reports and hospital exit. However, data on the lifestyle was mainly self -deprecated, which can introduce the recall bias.
Study results
The study identified three distinct LE8 score trajectories between 2006 and 2010, including low stable, moderate stable and high stable trajectories. Low stable trajectory included 21% of participants with constantly low LE8 scores; The moderate stable trajectory included 49% of participants with constantly moderate moderate LE8 scores; And the high stable trajectory included 29% of the participants with LE 8 persistently high scores.
The study identified 2,306 new cases of cancer during the 10.39 -year follow -up period (average). The analysis controlling potential confusion factors, including age, sex and lifestyle behavior, revealed that participants with higher Le8 scores had a significantly lower overall risk of cancer.
More specifically, participants from moderate and high stable stable trajectories presented a risk of overall cancer respectively 15% and 21% compared to those of the trajectory with low stable.
With regard to specific types of cancer, the study revealed that participants with constantly moderate moderate LE 8 scores have 49% and 34% of the risk development of breast and liver cancer, respectively, compared to those with constantly low LE8 scores.
Similarly, participants with LE 8 -persistently high scores presented 27%, 51%, 31% and 39% of the risk of pulmonary, breast, colorectal and hepatic cancer, respectively. However, in sensitivity analyzes, the reduced risk of liver cancer in the high stable group was no longer statistically significant after excluding participants using drugs (for example, antihypertensive) or those diagnosed in the first year.
In particular, the study revealed that the risk of reduced breast cancer due to the highly high high 8 scores was more pronounced in participants with an increase in serum C-reactive protein rates (a systemic inflammation marker). This observation indicates that inflammation can potentially influence the association between the LE8 score trajectories and the risk of cancer.
Meaning study
The study reveals that maintaining scores Le8 raised constantly increasing over a period of four years can considerably reduce the overall risk of cancer, as well as specific risks against cancers of lung, breast, colorectal and liver.
Similarly, the maintenance of the moderate LE8 scores constantly over the same period has considerably reduced the overall risk of cancer, as well as specific risks against breast and liver cancers.
The moderate to high LE 8 scores indicate a healthy lifestyle characterized by nutrient -rich eating habits, regular physical activity and adequate and high quality sleep. All these factors are essential to maintain healthy body weight, blood sugar and cholesterol levels and global metabolic homeostasis. These metabolic improvements could be responsible for the reverse association observed between the LE8 scores and the risk of cancer.
Storage of smoking is another essential element of Le8 which can potentially reduce the risk of exposure to carcinogens and, thus, can reduce the risk of cancer development.
However, the study has limits: the cohort was geographically limited to a single industrial community in China, which can affect generalization; Food data has not been evaluated in depth (for example, specific nutrient intake); Lifestyle measures were based on self-evaluations, which are subject to recall biases; And the specific critical factors for cancer (for example, the breast cancer reproduction history) have not been analyzed. In addition, the Le8 trajectories have remained relatively stable over time, potentially reflecting the nature concerned with the health of the cohort.
Overall, the results of the study highlight the importance of the integration of LE8 in public health and clinical strategies for cancer prevention.