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The impact of having a relative or a friend with cancer on person’s modifiable cancer-related risk factors

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Abstract

Background

It is known that targeting cancer-related modifiable risk factors is the best way to fight cancer. Behavioral and lifestyle changes can significantly reduce the burden of cancer.

Aims

We aim to assess the impact of having a relative/friend with cancer on the number of cancer-related modifiable risk factors a participant might have.

Methods

A survey-based cross-sectional study was conducted at King Hussein Cancer Center from June 2020 until July 2020. The survey was distributed via social media platforms, where we targeted adults who have never been diagnosed with cancer. We asked about modifiable cancer-related risk factors and compared between participants with and without relatives or friends with cancer.

Results

A total of 1486 participants were considered for analysis, with a mean age of 30.62 (SD 11.19) years. Participants who had a relative with cancer had a mean of 0.31 (p = 0.007; 95% CI: 0.08−0.54) fewer risk factors, with smoking and extra sun exposure were significantly lower among participants with a cancer relative. No significant difference in modifiable risk factors was found between participants with a friend who have cancer and those who do not (p = 0.193).

Conclusion

People who have relatives with cancer had less modifiable risk factors, which might reflect on their willingness to modify their cancer-related risk factors.

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Availability of data and material

Data associated with this manuscript can be made available through the corresponding author based on reasonable requests.

Code availability

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank King Hussein Cancer Foundation (KHCF) for sharing our questionnaire on their platforms, and respondents for their time.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, King Hussein Cancer Center, Amman, Jordan

    Hikmat Abdel-Razeq & Rayan Bater

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Jordan, Queen Rania Al Abdullah Street, P.O. Box: 1269, Amman, 11941, Jordan

    Hikmat Abdel-Razeq

  3. Office of Scientific Affairs and Research, King Hussein Cancer Center, Amman, Jordan

    Khawlah Ammar & Rana Al-Damsees

  4. Department of Special Surgery, School of Medicine, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan

    Saif Aldeen AlRyalat

Authors
  1. Hikmat Abdel-Razeq
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  2. Rayan Bater
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  3. Khawlah Ammar
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  4. Rana Al-Damsees
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  5. Saif Aldeen AlRyalat
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Contributions

HA-R: conceptualization, methodology, and writing and reviewing final draft. SAAR: conceptualization, investigation, analysis, and writing and reviewing final draft. KA: investigation, developed data collection tool, analysis, reviewing final draft. RD: investigation, data collection, reviewing and writing of final draft. RB: investigation, data collection, reviewing and writing of final draft. All authors have critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content, approve of the final version to be published, and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hikmat Abdel-Razeq.

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Ethics approval

The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at King Hussein Cancer Center.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Abdel-Razeq, H., Bater, R., Ammar, K. et al. The impact of having a relative or a friend with cancer on person’s modifiable cancer-related risk factors. Ir J Med Sci 192, 1027–1031 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-022-03073-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11845-022-03073-z

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