Psychosocial factors and cancer incidence (PSY-CA): Protocol for individual participant data meta-analyses

Lonneke van Tuijl*, Andrew W Boyd, Alison Teyhan

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)
83 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Objectives
Psychosocial factors have been hypothesized to increase the risk of cancer. This study aims (1) to test whether psychosocial factors (depression, anxiety, recent loss events, subjective social support, relationship status, general distress, and neuroticism) are associated with the incidence of any cancer (any, breast, lung, prostate, colorectal, smoking-related, and alcohol-related); (2) to test the interaction between psychosocial factors and factors related to cancer risk (smoking, alcohol use, weight, physical activity, sedentary behavior, sleep, age, sex, education, hormone replacement therapy, and menopausal status) with regard to the incidence of cancer; and (3) to test the mediating role of health behaviors (smoking, alcohol use, weight, physical activity, sedentary behavior, and sleep) in the relationship between psychosocial factors and the incidence of cancer.

Methods
The psychosocial factors and cancer incidence (PSY-CA) consortium was established involving experts in the field of (psycho-)oncology, methodology, and epidemiology. Using data collected in 18 cohorts (N = 617,355), a preplanned two-stage individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis is proposed. Standardized analyses will be conducted on harmonized datasets for each cohort (stage 1), and meta-analyses will be performed on the risk estimates (stage 2).

Conclusion
PSY-CA aims to elucidate the relationship between psychosocial factors and cancer risk by addressing several shortcomings of prior meta-analyses.
Original languageEnglish
Article numbere2340
JournalBrain and Behavior
Volume11
Issue number10
Early online date2 Sept 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The PSY‐CA consortium is supported by funding from the Dutch Cancer Society(VU2017‐8288).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors. Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals LLC

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