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Background: While women's parity status and education level have independent associations with cardiovascular and other diseases, no studies have evaluated the additive interaction of these two factors. Therefore, we examined the additive interaction between parity and education level on mortality from stroke, coronary heart disease, total cardiovascular disease, cancer, non-cardiovascular disease, and non-cancer causes, and all causes in Japanese women.Methods: This study followed 41,242 women aged 40-79 years without a history of cardiovascular disease or cancer from 1988 to 1990 until 2009. Baseline parity and education level were classified into four categories, with highly educated parous women as the reference group. Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were performed to calculate the risk of mortality. We also assessed the additive interactions between parity and education level on mortality from cardiovascular disease and other causes using the relative excess risk due to interaction obtained using Cox models.Results: During the median follow-up period of 19.1 years, we identified 6299 deaths. In a multivariable model adjusted for cardiovascular disease and other disease risk factors, nulliparous women with low education levels had increased multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios of 1.67 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.13, 2.47) for stroke, 1.98 (95% CI 1.15, 3.39) for coronary heart disease, 1.71 (95% CI 1.34,2.18) for total cardiovascular disease, 1.69 (95% CI 1.33, 2.14) for non-cardiovascular and non-cancer, and 1.51 (95% CI 1.30, 1.75) for all-cause mortality when compared with highly educated parous women. Moreover, we observed significant additive interactions between parity and education level on total cardiovascular disease mortality (P = 0.04), non-cardiovascular disease and non-cancer mortality (P = 0.01), and all-cause mortality (P = 0.005).Conclusions: Nulliparity and low education levels are super-additively associated with total cardiovascular disease, non-cardiovascular and non-cancer, and all-cause mortality risks, suggesting that nulliparous women with low education levels need specific support for preventing mortality related to cardiovascular and other diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dairy products have been indicated as a risk factor for prostate cancer. However, only a few epidemiological studies have reported dairy products as being a risk factor for prostate cancer in Japan, reporting contradictory results. We therefore investigated the association between the intake of dairy products and the occurrence of prostate cancer through a large‐scale cohort study. The Japan Collaborative Cohort study analyzed approximately 110,000 residents from various Japanese districts who participated in our questionnaire survey during 1988–1990. The subjects of the present study were 26,464 men (age range: 40–79 years) from 24 districts wherein cancer incidence was reported. Their clinical course was followed up until 2009. Hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated using Cox's proportional hazards model, adjusted for age, survey area, family history of prostate cancer, body mass index, and total energy intake. For diet, we calculated the HRs associated with intermediate and high consumption of dairy products and compared them with those associated with low consumption. There were 412 cases of prostate cancer in the survey population. As dairy products, milk, yogurt, cheese, and butter were evaluated. Among them, milk consumption was associated with a significant risk (HR = 1.37, p = 0.009) and a dose‐dependent response (p for trend = 0.009) adjusted for age and family history of prostate cancer, stratified by area. Milk and yogurt consumption showed a significantly positive risk and a dose–response relationship adjusted for age, family history of prostate cancer, body mass index, and total energy intake, stratified by area. In summary, a high intake of dairy products such as milk increased the risk of developing prostate cancer in Japanese men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Soluble Fas (sFas) plays various roles in carcinogenesis and tumor dissemination by preventing apoptosis via binding to Fas ligand. We analyzed associations of serum sFas levels with the incidence of liver cancer in a prospective case-control study nested in the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study., Methods: A baseline survey was conducted from 1988, with blood samples obtained from 39,242 subjects. Patients diagnosed with liver cancer were regarded as cases. Two or three controls were selected and matched for sex, age, and geographic area. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate ORs for cancer incidence associated with sFas., Results: This study contained 86 cases and 249 controls. After controlling for alcohol intake, body mass index, smoking, and hepatitis viral infection, participants with high sFas showed elevated risk of cancer (Ptrend = 0.003) and the third tertile of sFas showed a higher risk compared with the first tertile [OR, 3.53; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.28-9.69]. In hepatocellular carcinoma, high sFas was associated with elevated risk (Ptrend < 0.001). In men and the elderly, subjects in the highest tertiles showed higher cancer risk. Limiting subjects to those followed for 3 years, high sFas was related to liver cancer risk (Ptrend = 0.033) and the third tertile showed a higher risk compared with the first (OR, 2.94; 95% CI, 0.94-9.14)., Conclusions: High serum sFas may be related to future risk of liver cancer., Impact: Our findings highlight this biomarker for further analysis in pooled investigations with different/larger prospective cohorts., (©2022 American Association for Cancer Research.)