Exposure prevalence and HRs for cancers causally related to body fatness or both tobacco and alcohol over 10-year follow-up
| Risk factors | Men and women | Men | Women | |||
| Prevalence* | HR (95% CI)† | Prevalence* | HR (95% CI)† | Prevalence* | HR (95% CI)† | |
| Body fatness (BMI; kg/m2)‡,§ | ||||||
| Underweight (<18.5) | 2% | 0.84 (0.69 to 1.01) | 1% | 1.22 (0.80 to 1.87) | 2% | 0.78 (0.63 to 0.96) |
| Healthy weight (18.5–24.9) | 35% | 1 | 28% | 1 | 42% | 1 |
| Overweight (25.0–29.9) | 36% | 1.14 (1.09 to 1.20) | 42% | 1.18 (1.08 to 1.29) | 29% | 1.13 (1.06 to 1.20) |
| Obese (≥30.0) | 28% | 1.36 (1.29 to 1.44) | 28% | 1.42 (1.28 to 1.58) | 27% | 1.35 (1.26 to 1.44) |
| Smoking¶ | ||||||
| Never regular | 57% | 1 | 51% | 1 | 63% | 1 |
| Former regular | 28% | 1.29 (1.20 to 1.37) | 32% | 1.44 (1.31 to 1.57) | 25% | 1.20 (1.08 to 1.32) |
| Current regular | 15% | 1.59 (1.43 to 1.77) | 17% | 1.96 (1.70 to 2.26) | 12% | 1.29 (1.09 to 1.52) |
| Alcohol consumption¶ | ||||||
| ≤2 drinks/day | 83% | 1 | 74% | 1 | 91% | 1 |
| >2 drinks/day | 17% | 1.38 (1.27 to 1.50) | 26% | 1.41 (1.28 to 1.55) | 9% | 1.27 (1.06 to 1.51) |
| Smoking by alcohol consumption | ||||||
| ≤2 drinks/day | ||||||
| Never regular smoker | 51% | 1 | 42% | 1 | 59% | 1 |
| Former regular smoker | 22% | 1.24 (1.15 to 1.34) | 22% | 1.35 (1.22 to 1.50) | 21% | 1.19 (1.07 to 1.32) |
| Current regular smoker | 10% | 1.41 (1.24 to 1.61) | 10% | 1.74 (1.44 to 2.09) | 10% | 1.21 (1.00 to 1.45) |
| >2 drinks/day | ||||||
| Never regular smoker | 6% | 1 | 9% | 1 | 4% | 1 |
| Former regular smoker | 7% | 1.44 (1.21 to 1.72) | 10% | 1.53 (1.25 to 1.86) | 4% | 1.20 (0.81 to 1.80) |
| Current regular smoker | 4% | 2.09 (1.67 to 2.62) | 7% | 2.24 (1.73 to 2.89) | 2% | 1.73 (1.06 to 2.81) |
*From the National Health Survey (NHS) 2014–2015.
†Adjusted for age, sex and study.
‡Some percentages do not add up to 100 because of rounding.
§Cancers causally related to body fatness are oesophageal adenocarcinoma (C15, histology codes 8140–8576), cancers of stomach (C16), colon (C18), rectum (C19-20), liver (C22), gallbladder (C23) and pancreas (C25), postmenopausal breast cancer (C50), cancers of corpus uteri (C54) and ovary (C56), renal-cell carcinoma (C64, histology codes 8050, 8140, 8260, 8270, 8280–8312, 8316–8320, 8340–8344), meningioma (C70), thyroid cancer (C73) and multiple myeloma (C90). After exclusion of individuals with prevalent body fatness-related cancer at baseline, 351 035 individuals were available for analyses and 328 438 (93.6%) of them had BMI information available.
¶Cancers causally related to both tobacco and alcohol are cancers of tongue (C01-02), mouth (C03-C06), oropharynx (C10), hypopharynx (C12-C13), other sites in pharynx (C14), oesophagus (C15), colon (C18), rectum (C19-C20), liver (C22) and larynx (C32). After exclusion of individuals with prevalent tobacco and alcohol-related cancer at baseline, 359 796 individuals were available for analyses and 356 117 (99.0%) of them had smoking, 351 119 (97.6%) alcohol consumption and 348 070 (96.7%) both smoking and alcohol consumption information available.
BMI, body mass index.