Table 5.
Personality variables and incident cancer (morbidity and mortality) in the Heidelberg cohort (4267 participants)*
|
Personality scale
|
Person years (n=31 257)
|
No of events (n=240)
|
Incidence/100 000 person years (768 overall)
|
Relative risk (95% CI)†
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unadjusted | Adjusted for age and sex | Fully adjusted† | ||||
| Symptoms of depression | ||||||
| Low | 9 878 | 79 | 800 | 1.26 (0.91 to 1.75) | 1.37 (0.99 to 1.91) | 1.35 (0.96 to 1.88) |
| Medium | 10 493 | 66 | 629 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| High | 10 810 | 95 | 879 | 1.39 (1.02 to 1.91) | 1.31 (0.95 to 1.79) | 1.18 (0.85 to 1.63) |
| 1 SD increase | — | — | — | 1.09 (0.97 to 1.23) | 1.06 (0.93 to 1.20) | 1.00 (0.87 to 1.15) |
| Anger control | ||||||
| Low | 9 106 | 56 | 615 | 0.80 (0.57 to 1.12) | 0.86 (0.62 to 1.20) | 0.87 (0.62 to 1.23) |
| Medium | 11 615 | 90 | 775 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| High | 10 479 | 93 | 887 | 1.14 (0.85 to 1.53) | 1.09 (0.81 to 1.46) | 1.14 (0.84 to 1.54) |
| 1 SD increase | — | — | — | 1.10 (0.97 to 1.25) | 1.04 (0.91 to 1.19) | 1.06 (0.93 to 1.22) |
| Time urgency | ||||||
| Low | 10 856 | 93 | 857 | 1.04 (0.77 to 1.40) | 1.06 (0.78 to 1.42) | 1.08 (0.80 to 1.47) |
| Medium | 9 746 | 81 | 831 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| High | 10 654 | 66 | 619 | 0.74 (0.54 to 1.03) | 0.71 (0.51 to 0.98) | 0.68 (0.49 to 0.95) |
| 1 SD increase | — | — | — | 0.87 (0.76 to 0.99) | 0.85 (0.74 to 0.96) | 0.83 (0.73 to 0.95) |
| Internal locus of control over disease | ||||||
| Low | 9 716 | 85 | 875 | 1.25 (0.92 to 1.71) | 1.25 (0.92 to 1.72) | 1.20 (0.87 to 1.66) |
| Medium | 10 391 | 73 | 703 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| High | 11 149 | 82 | 735 | 1.04 (0.76 to 1.43) | 1.01 (0.74 to 1.38) | 1.00 (0.72 to 1.38) |
| 1 SD increase | — | — | — | 0.99 (0.87 to 1.13) | 0.98 (0.86 to 1.11) | 0.98 (0.86 to 1.12) |
| Psychoticism | ||||||
| Low | 6 577 | 55 | 836 | 1.17 (0.85 to 1.62) | 1.29 (0.93 to 1.77) | 1.34 (0.97 to 1.85) |
| Medium | 16 614 | 118 | 710 | 1.00 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| High | 7 996 | 67 | 838 | 1.18 (0.87 to 1.59) | 1.16 (0.86 to 1.57) | 1.16 (0.85 to 1.58) |
| 1 SD increase | — | — | — | 1.06 (0.95 to 1.19) | 1.04 (0.92 to 1.16) | 1.01 (0.89 to 1.14) |
242 participants had cancer at baseline; 256 participants lacked information on incident cancer during follow-up; 240 incident cases of myocardial infarction (including 83 deaths) occurred.
Incidence rate ratios and their 95% confidence intervals from Cox proportional hazards model controlling for all variables in table 1: age (continuous), sex, body mass index (3 categories), smoking status (never, former, current), alcohol consumption (4 categories), exercise (4 categories), comorbidity (history of stroke, cancer, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, and diabetes), family history of cancer, and education (4 categories). Fully adjusted models based on 3587 participants for anger control, 3591 for time urgency, 3591 for internal locus of control over disease, 3584 for psychoticism, and 3583 for symptoms of depression, and 230 events owing to missing information on covariates.