ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS |
Acne in Adolescence and Cause-specific Mortality: Lower Coronary Heart Disease but Higher Prostate Cancer Mortality
The Glasgow Alumni Cohort Study
1 Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
2 Centre for Public Health Research, Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
3 Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom
Correspondence to Dr. Bruna Galobardes, Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, Canynge Hall, Whiteladies Road, Bristol BS8 2PR, United Kingdom (e-mail: bruna.galobardes{at}bristol.ac.uk).
Androgen level or androgen activity is implicated in several health outcomes, but its independent role remains controversial. This study investigated the association between history of acne in young adulthood, a marker of hormone activity, and cause-specific mortality in the Glasgow Alumni Cohort Study. Male students who attended Glasgow University between 1948 and 1968 and participated in voluntary health checks reported history of acne (n = 11,232). Vital status has been traced, and risk factors in adulthood are known for about 50% of the participants. Those with a history of acne were more often nonsmokers while university students and tended to be from a lower socioeconomic position. The two groups did not differ in other adolescent (height, body mass index, blood pressure, and number of siblings) or in most adult risk factors. Students who reported a history of acne had a lower risk of all-cause (hazard ratio = 0.89, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.76, 1.04) and coronary heart disease (hazard ratio = 0.67, 95% CI: 0.48, 0.94) mortality but had some evidence of a higher risk of prostate cancer mortality (hazard ratio = 1.67, 95% CI: 0.79, 3.55). This study shows that androgen activity during adolescence may protect against coronary heart disease but confer a higher risk of prostate cancer mortality.
acne vulgaris; androgens; coronary disease; hormones; mortality; prostatic neoplasms
Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; HR, hazard ratio; ICD-9, International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision; ICD-10, International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision
Editor's note: An invited commentary on this article appears on page 1102.
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  E. S. Ford and S. Liu Invited Commentary: Acne in Adolescence--Protecting the Heart but Damaging the Prostate Later in Life? Am. J. Epidemiol., June 15, 2005; 161(12): 1102 - 1106. [Full Text] [PDF]
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