Breast Cancer Prevalence: Flight Cabin Crew Versus General Population
Posted: Friday, August 10, 2018
In a recent study published in Environmental Health, flight attendants, compared with the general population, showed an increased prevalence of a variety of cancers including breast, uterine, cervical, gastrointestinal, thyroid, melanoma, and non-melanoma skin cancers. However, the investigators noted, their findings are based on self-reported health information from a cross-sectional study design and so require confirmation in future longitudinal studies.
“Our finding of higher rates of several cancers among flight attendants is striking, given the low rates of overweight and smoking in our study population, which highlights the question of what can be done to minimize the adverse exposures and cancers common among the cabin crew,” coauthor Irina Mordukhovich, PhD, MSPH, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, stated in an institutional press release.
Dr. Mordukhovich and colleagues compared self-reported survey data from the Harvard Flight Attendant Study (FAHS) with the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). A total of 5,366 total U.S. flight attendants completed surveys for the FAHS (2014–2015), and 2,729 U.S. residents completed the NHANES (2013–2014). Specifically, the prevalence of breast cancer in surveyed flight attendants was 3.4%, compared with the NHANES’s general population analysis of 2.3%. Consistent with past literature, further analysis of female flight attendants revealed that those with three or more children and higher job tenure were associated with increased rates of breast cancer.
