| Name | Lin Zhu |
| Institution | Center for Asian Health, Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple University |
| Research Field | Population Cancer Research |
| Role at Institution | Post-Doctoral Fellow |
| Presenter(s) | Lin Zhu |
The Association Between Metabolic Syndrome and Cancer: Racial/Ethnic Differences and Underlying Behavioral Mechanisms
Lin Zhu, PhD1; Grace X. Ma, PhD, CHES1,2
1 Center for Asian Health, Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
2Department of Clinical Sciences, Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA
Introduction: Recent epidemiological studies have suggested a trend of increasing prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and certain types of cancer among adults under the age of 50. How is MetS associated with cancer in adults under the age of 50? How does the association vary by racial/ethnic groups? What are the potential lifestyle behavioral mechanisms? This study attempts to gain insights into these questions.
Methods: We used data from the 2011–2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) to define a case-control sample to examine the racial/ethnic disparities in the association of MetS and cancer of any type. We used chi-square test and binary logistic regression to examine the MetS and cancer association. All analyses were conducted in Stata 14.
Results: From a total sample of 17,969 cases, we identified 15,463 no-cancer cases, and 1,584 cancer cases. We found that MetS was significantly associated with cancer risk in the total sample (odds ratio = 1.50, p = .005). This association was only found in the Asian subsample with marginal significance (odds ratio = 3.68, p = .06). Smoking was a significant mediator to the MetS-cancer association in the total sample; sleep duration was a marginally significant mediator in the African American subsample.
Conclusion: This study findings suggested racial/ethnic differences in how MetS and cancer are associated and the potential mediating effects of lifestyle behavioral factors. Future research with a bigger sample size is needed to fully explore these topics.
Acknowledgement: This project was supported by Center for Asian Health’s funds (PI: Grace X. Ma, PhD), and TUFCCC/HC Regional Comprehensive Cancer Health Disparity Partnership, Award Number U54 CA221704(5) (Contact PIs: Grace X. Ma, PhD and Olorunseun O. Ogunwobi, MD, PhD) from the National Cancer Institute of National Institutes of Health (NCI/NIH). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NCI/NIH.
Email questions and comments about this abstract to lin.zhu@temple.edu.