Healthy Working Lives Group, Clarice Pears Building, School of Health & Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, 90 Byres Road, Glasgow, G12 8TB, UK.
MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Clarice Pears Building, School of Health & Wellbeing, University of Glasgow, 90 Byres Road, Glasgow, G12 8TB, UK.
Occup Med (Lond). 2023 Sep 29;73(6):304-308. doi: 10.1093/occmed/kqad070.
The information technology (IT) workforce has been growing more rapidly than others, with occupational health (OH) risks of sedentary behaviour, physical inactivity and poor diet, yet studies of their non-communicable disease risk, notably cancer, are lacking.
To investigate cancer risk in IT workers compared to others in employment and the nine major Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) groups.
We evaluated incident diagnosed cancers in the UK Biobank cohort through national cancer registry linkage. Cox proportional hazard regression models, with 15-year follow-up, were used to compare incident cancer risk among IT workers with all other employed participants and with the nine major SOC groups.
Overall, 10 517 (4%) employed participants were IT workers. Adjusting for confounders, IT workers had a slightly lower cancer incidence compared to all other employed participants (Model 2: hazard ratio = 0.91, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.83-1.01). Compared to the nine major SOC groups, they had a similar (Major Groups 2, 5 and 8) or lower (Major Groups 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 9) cancer incidence.
Despite their occupational risks of sedentary behaviour, poor diet and physical inactivity, IT workers do not have an increased cancer incidence compared to all other employed participants and the nine major SOC groups. This study paves the way for large, longitudinal health outcome studies of this under-researched and rapidly growing occupational group.
信息技术（IT）劳动力的增长速度超过其他行业，存在久坐行为、身体活动不足和不良饮食等职业健康风险，但对其非传染性疾病风险（尤其是癌症）的研究却很少。
研究 IT 工作者与其他就业人群以及九大主要标准职业分类（SOC）群体相比患癌症的风险。
我们通过国家癌症登记处的链接，在英国生物库队列中评估了新诊断癌症的发病情况。使用 Cox 比例风险回归模型，随访 15 年，比较 IT 工作者与所有其他就业参与者以及九大主要 SOC 群体之间的癌症发病风险。
总体而言，10517 名（4%）就业参与者为 IT 工作者。在调整混杂因素后，IT 工作者的癌症发病率略低于所有其他就业参与者（模型 2：风险比=0.91，95%置信区间[CI]0.83-1.01）。与九大主要 SOC 群体相比，他们的癌症发病率相似（主要群体 2、5 和 8）或更低（主要群体 1、3、4、6、7 和 9）。
尽管 IT 工作者存在久坐行为、不良饮食和身体活动不足等职业风险，但与所有其他就业参与者和九大主要 SOC 群体相比，他们的癌症发病率并未增加。这项研究为这一研究不足且快速增长的职业群体进行大型、纵向健康结果研究铺平了道路。
