Washington, D.C., July 05, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — A new study led by a team at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), conducted in collaboration with the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and published in Current Developments in Nutrition, examined health behaviors and mortality risk in a cohort of over 175,000 older (50-71 years of age at recruitment) Americans. They found that following a lifestyle aligned with the 2018 WCRF/AICR Cancer Prevention Recommendations was associated with a significant reduction in risk of all-cause, cancer-specific and cardiovascular-specific mortality.
And the changes in risk were substantial. The 2018 WCRF/AICR Score is a seven-point, standardized scoring system based on 10 evidence-based Cancer Prevention Recommendations published by the WCRF/AICR in 2018 focused on modifiable lifestyle factors including weight, physical activity, diet factors, and alcohol intake. This study found that each one-point increase in the 2018 WCRF/AICR Score was associated with a 9-26% reduced mortality risk, except in current male smokers’ cancer mortality risk; the strongest associations were seen in former smokers.
When high versus lower scorers were compared, older adults who scored 5-7 points were 43-62% less likely to die of all-causes compared to those with 0–2-point scores. The results differed by sex and smoking status, with the strongest associations again in former smokers. The…
