A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study: Will Anxiety Disorders Increase Subsequent Cancer Risk?
A partir des données de l'assurance maladie taïwanaise portant sur 24 066 patients, cette étude évalue l'association entre des troubles de l'anxiété et le risque de cancer
Background : The aim of this study was to evaluate a possible association between malignancy and anxiety disorders (AD) in Taiwan. Methods : We employed data from the National Health Insurance system of Taiwan. The AD cohort contained 24,066 patients with each patient randomly frequency matched according to age and sex with 4 individuals from the general population without AD. Cox's proportional hazard regression analysis was conducted to estimate the influence of AD on the risk of cancer. Results : Among patients with AD, the overall risk of developing cancer was only 1% higher than among subjects without AD, and the difference was not significant (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.01, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 0.95–1.07). With regard to individual types of cancer, the risk of developing prostate cancer among male patients with AD was significantly higher (HR = 1.32, 95% CI = 1.02–1.71). On the other hand, the risk of cervical cancer among female patients with AD was marginally significantly lower than among female subjects without AD (HR = 0.72, 95% CI = 0.51–1.03). Limitations : One major limitation is the lack of information regarding the life style or behavior of patients in the NHI database, such as smoking and alcohol consumption. Conclusions : Despite the failure to identify a relationship between AD and the overall risk of cancer, we found that Taiwanese patients with AD had a higher risk of developing prostate cancer and a lower risk of developing cervical cancer.
PLOS ONE 2012