Cancer risk in information technology workers: a UK Biobank study

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Epidemiology
• Cancer Research

Background:

• The information technology (IT) workforce is rapidly expanding globally.
• IT professionals face occupational health (OH) risks including sedentary behavior, physical inactivity, and poor diet.
• There is a lack of research on non-communicable disease risk, particularly cancer, in the IT sector.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate and compare cancer risk in information technology (IT) workers against other employed populations.
• To analyze cancer incidence among IT workers in relation to the nine major Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) groups.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the UK Biobank cohort, linking data to national cancer registries for incident diagnosed cancers.
• Employed Cox proportional hazard regression models for a 15-year follow-up period.
• Compared cancer risk between IT workers and all other employed participants, as well as the nine major SOC groups.

Main Results:

• Out of 10,517 IT workers (4% of the cohort), cancer incidence was slightly lower compared to all other employed participants (HR=0.91, 95% CI 0.83-1.01) after adjusting for confounders.
• IT workers exhibited similar or lower cancer incidence when compared to the nine major SOC groups.

Conclusions:

• Despite occupational risks associated with sedentary behavior and poor lifestyle factors, IT workers do not present an elevated cancer incidence.
• This research highlights the need for further longitudinal studies on health outcomes within the IT occupational group.
• The findings contribute to understanding the health profiles of this significant and growing workforce.