Alcohol, Smoking, and Body Size in Relation to Incident Hodgkin's and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma RiskAmerican Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access published online on June 27, 2007
Studies associate alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, and body size with the risk of overall or subtype lymphoma. Current data come mostly from case-control studies or prospective studies with few cases.
In the prospective National Institutes of Health-former American Association of Retired Persons (NIH-AARP) Diet and Health Study, the authors assessed the above lifestyle factors via baseline questionnaire among 285,079 men and 188,905 women aged 50–71 years and ascertained histologically confirmed Hodgkin's lymphoma (n = 58) and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (n = 1,381) cases through linkage with cancer registries from 1995 to 2000.
Compared with nondrinkers, alcohol consumers had a lower risk for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma overall (for >28 drinks/week: adjusted relative risk (RR) = 0.77, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.59, 1.00; ptrend among drinkers = 0.02) and for its main subtypes.
Compared with never smokers, current smokers and recent quitters (
4 years ago) had higher risk of Hodgkin's lymphoma (RR = 2.25, 95% CI: 1.04, 4.89; RR = 4.20, 95% CI: 1.94, 9.09, respectively), whereas current or former smokers had lower risk of follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (RR = 0.67, 95% CI: 0.52, 0.86).
Severe obesity (body mass index of 
35: RR = 1.29, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.64) and taller height (RR = 1.19, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.38) were associated moderately with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
These findings add to the evidence that lifestyle factors and relevant anthropometric characteristics play a role in lymphoma etiology.
Reprint Request E-Mail: limu@mail.nih.gov
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