Cancer in working-age is not associated with childhood adversities

Figures & data

Table I. Kappa coefficients (95% CI) of responses on childhood adversities between questionnaires in 1998 and 2003 among cancer patients (n = 276–291) and controls (17 159–17 491).

	Cancer patients	Controls
Parents divorced	0.86 (0.76–0.95)	0.88 (0.87–0.89)
Prolonged financial difficulties in the family	0.57 (0.48–0.65)	0.57 (0.56–0.58)
Serious conflicts in the family	0.62 (0.54–0.71)	0.55 (0.54–0.56)
Often afraid of some member of the family	0.52 (0.41–0.64)	0.59 (0.57–0.61)
Someone in the family seriously or chronically ill	0.60 (0.50–0.69)	0.58 (0.57–0.60)
Someone in the family had problems with alcohol	0.74 (0.66–0.83)	0.75 (0.74–0.76)

Table II. Distribution of gender, age groups, education, obesity, also those reporting smoking and alcohol consumption among cancer patients and controls. P-values from χ² test.

	Cancer patients (n = 360–384)*		Controls (n = 21 078–22 974)*
	n	%	n	%	p value
Sex					0.065
women	243	63.3	13 462	58.6
men	141	36.7	9 512	41.4
Age-group (years)					<0.001
20–24	18	4.7	6 444	28.1
30–34	28	7.3	5 534	24.1
40–44	102	26.6	5 421	23.6
50–54	236	61.5	5 575	24.3
Education**					<0.001
lower	260	67.9	12 951	56.5
higher	123	32.1	9 986	43.5
Obesity					0.014
BMI <30	333	86.7	20 658	90.5
BMI ≥30	51	13.3	2 181	9.6
Smoker					0.245
never smoked	146	40.6	9 483	45.0
given up smoking	108	30.0	5 817	27.6
habitual	106	29.4	5 776	27.4
Alcohol consumption					0.833
none or minimal	122	31.8	6 967	30.4
moderate	240	62.5	14 586	63.6
heavy	22	5.7	1 381	6.0

*The variance is caused by the number of missing answers in different questions.

**Matriculation examination.

Table III. Proportion (%) of cancer patients and controls reporting childhood adversities. P-values from χ² test.

	Women			Men
	Patients	Controls		Patients	Controls
	(n = 215–234)	(n = 12 370–13 715)	p-value	(n = 119–134)	(n = 8 655–9 451)	p-value
Parents divorced	9.6	18.2	0.001	12.7	16.3	0.267
Prolonged financial difficulties in the family	37.2	28.6	0.006	31.1	25.8	0.190
Serious conflicts in the family	34.6	30.0	0.142	23.5	23.9	0.933
Often afraid of some member of the family	18.2	15.7	0.318	10.1	9.9	0.947
Someone in the family seriously or chronically ill	33.3	26.5	0.019	30.1	24.6	0.145
Someone in the family had problems with alcohol	24.4	26.9	0.384	21.8	20.9	0.805

Statistically significant differences presented in bold face.

Table IV. ORs (95% CI) of childhood adversities reported among respondents in the multivariate logistic regression analysis for cancer without and with adjustment for age, sex, education and health behaviour. Statistically significant differences are presented in bold face.

	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4
Parents divorced	0.57 (0.41–0.80)	0.84 (0.60–1.17)	0.84 (0.60–1.18)	0.87 (0.62–1.22)
Prolonged financial difficulties in the family	1.43 (1.14–1.79)	1.10 (0.88–1.39)	1.10 (0.87–1.39)	1.11 (0.87–1.40)
Serious conflicts in the family	1.17 (0.92–1.48)	1.24 (0.98–1.57)	1.23 (0.97–1.56)	1.26 (0.98–1.60)
Often afraid of some member of the family	1.16 (0.87–1.56)	1.05 (0.78–1.42)	1.06 (0.79–1.43)	1.10 (0.81–1.49)
Someone in the family seriously or chronically ill	1.37 (1.01–1.71)	0.96 (0.77–1.21)	0.97 (0.78–1.22)	0.99 (0.79–1.25)
Someone in the family had problems with alcohol	0.91 (0.71–1.16)	0.97 (0.76–1.24)	0.98 (0.76–1.25)	0.98 (0.76–1.26)

Model 1: Not adjusted.

Model 2: Adjusted for age- and sex.

Model 3: Adjusted for age-, sex- and education.

Model 4: Adjusted for age-, sex-, education-, health behaviour (smoking, alcohol consumption and obesity).