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Associations between sun exposure and other lifestyle variables in Swedish women

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Abstract

Purpose

Sun exposure is associated with risk of several chronic diseases including cancer. The study aim is to investigate whether sun behaviors are related to other lifestyle risk factors of cancer.

Methods

We analyzed data collected in 2003–2004 by self-completed questionnaire from 34,402 Swedish women aged 40–61 years, who comprised 70% of a cohort of originally recruited from a population registry in 1991–1992 (n = 49,259). Participants were asked about annual number of sunburns and annual number of weeks of swimming and sunbathing during 1991–2002, solarium use during 1991–1998 and current sunscreen use.

Results

Compared to non-drinkers, the prevalence ratio (95% CI) in women who drank >10 g of alcohol per day was 1.64 (1.49, 1.81) for having >1 sunburn per year, 1.39 (1.29, 1.51) for swimming and sunbathing >2.5 weeks per year and 1.55 (1.41, 1.70) for using a solarium >1 time per 2 months, adjusting for demographic and lifestyle variables. Tobacco smokers were less likely to report sunburn and to use sunscreen, and more likely to sunbath and use solaria, compared with non-smokers. Physical activity was associated positively with swimming and sunbathing, and with the separate use of solaria and sunscreens, but not with number of sunburns. The lifestyle variables that explained most of the variation in sun behavior were alcohol and smoking.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that alcohol consumption and tobacco smoking are potential lifestyle confounders which should be adjusted in studies investigating the association that sun and/or solarium exposure may have with risk of several cancer sites.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Pouran Almstedt (data manager) for database administration.

Funding

This study was supported by a grant from the Swedish Research Council. Grant Number 521-2011-2955.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Auckland, Auckland Mail Centre, 1142, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand

    R. Scragg

  2. Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    S. Sandin, H.-O. Adami & E. Weiderpass

  3. Department of Biosciences and Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    M. Löf

  4. Clinical Effectiveness Research Group, Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    H.-O. Adami

  5. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    H.-O. Adami

  6. Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    S. Sandin

  7. Department of Research, Cancer Registry of Norway, Institute of Population-Based Cancer Research, Oslo, Norway

    E. Weiderpass

  8. Department of Community Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tromsø, The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway

    E. Weiderpass

  9. Genetic Epidemiology Group, Folkhälsan Research Center, Helsinki, Finland

    E. Weiderpass

  10. The Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    S. Sandin

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  1. R. Scragg
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Contributions

Conception and design: RS, SS, EW. Development of methodology: RS, SS, ML, H-OA, EW. Acquisition of data (provided animals, acquired and managed patients, provided facilities, etc.): SS, ML, H-OA, E W. Analysis and interpretation of data (e.g., statistical analysis, biostatistics, computational analysis): RS, SS, ML, H-OA, EW. Writing, review and/or revision of the manuscript: RS, SS, ML, H-OA, EW. Administrative, technical, or material support (i.e., reporting or organizing data, constructing databases): SS, ML, H-OA, E W. Study supervision: H-OA, EW.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to R. Scragg.

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The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

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Scragg, R., Sandin, S., Löf, M. et al. Associations between sun exposure and other lifestyle variables in Swedish women. Cancer Causes Control 28, 985–996 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-017-0926-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-017-0926-7

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