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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2022 Apr 1.
Published in final edited form as: Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2021 Jul 15;14(10):945–954. doi: 10.1158/1940-6207.CAPR-20-0549

Table 3.

Multivariable Risk of Incident HCC according to Weight Change During Overall Adulthood1 in the NHS and HPFS Cohorts

Adulthood Weight Change 1 Loss ≥ −5kg Stable Weight − 5 to < 5kg Gain 5 to <10kg Gain 10 to <20 kg Gain ≥20 kg Continuous HR (95% CI) P for Trend

Women (NHS)
Cases, N. 28 14 9 20 27 -- --
Person-years 641,893 437,150 354,306 601,258 541,923 -- --
MV adjusted HR; (95%CI) 1.68 (0.56–4.77) 1 (ref.) 1.19 (0.43–2.82) 1.35 (0.66–3.96) 2.02 (0.90–5.78) 1.02 (1.00–1.10) 0.029
MV adjusted HR + young adult BMI* (95%CI) 1.70 (0.59–4.90) 1 (ref.) 1.15 (0.42–2.72) 1.33 (0.65–3.65) 1.95 (0.90–5.59) 1.02 (1.00–1.10) 0.036
Men (HPFS)
Cases, N. 5 16 12 11 16 -- --
Person-years 98,253 319,404 234,249 302,190 145,924 -- --
MV adjusted HR; (95%CI) 2.94 (0.65–7.29) 1 (ref.) 1.72 (0.38–7.78) 2.71 (0.83–11.60) 4.77 (1.12–12.09) 1.08 (1.04–1.13) 0.001
MV adjusted HR + young adult BMI* (95%CI) 3.04 (0.67–7.72) 1 (ref.) 1.92 (0.42–8.76) 2.86 (0.88–12.29) 4.30 (1.07–11.12) 1.06 (1.02–1.12) 0.004
Combined cohort
Cases, N. 33 30 21 31 43 -- --
Person-years 740,146 756,554 588,555 903,448 687,847 -- --
MV adjusted HR; (95%CI) 1.81 (0.86–3.02) 1 (ref.) 1.38 (0.66–2.11) 1.74 (1.02–2.62) 3.04 (1.61–5.75) 1.03 (1.01–1.08) 0.010
MV adjusted HR + young adult BMI* (95%CI) 1.83 (0.86–3.08) 1 (ref.) 1.40 (0.67–2.16) 2.09 (1.11–3.95) 2.61 (1.42–5.22) 1.03 (1.01–1.09) 0.010

Abbreviations: NHS, Nurses’ Health Study; HPFS, Health Professionals Follow-up Study; No., number; kg, kilogram; HR, hazard ratio; CI, confidence interval; MET, metabolic equivalent task; MV, multivariable model; BMI, body mass index

1

Overall adulthood weight change was defined as the difference in weight in kilograms between early adulthood (i.e. age 18 years [women] or age 21 years [men]) and present, using biennially updated data. For details, see Methods

*

Young adult BMI was defined as BMI at age 18 years (women) or 21 years (men).

Multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression models were stratified by age (years), and year of questionnaire return, with further adjustment for race (white vs. non-white), alcohol intake (0–4.9, 5–14.9, ≥15 g/day), smoking status (current vs. prior vs. never), type 2 diabetes (yes vs. no), hypertension (yes vs. no), dyslipidemia (yes vs. no), regular aspirin use (≥2 tablets per week vs. no), adherence to a healthy diet, defined by the alternative healthy eating index 2010 (AHEI) without alcohol, and physical activity, in continuous metabolic equivalent task (MET)-hours per week. Additional models further adjusted for young-adult BMI. All covariates (with the exception of race/ethnicity and young-adult BMI) were updated over each questionnaire cycle and modeled as time-varying covariates. For the combined cohort, results were meta-analyzed.