Light at Night and Prostate Cancer in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study

The Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS) is a prospective cohort study of men designed to evaluate hypotheses about men's health related to diet and lifestyle to the incidence of serious illnesses, such as cancer, heart disease, and other vascular diseases. It consisted of 51,529 U.S. male health professionals who were 40-75 years old at baseline in 1986 and completed a mailed six-page baseline questionnaire. Information on age, height, weight, ancestry, medications, disease history, physical activity, lifestyle factors, and diet were gathered, with follow-up questionnaires sent biennially to update information and record health outcomes with every four years to update their diet. Light at Night and Prostate Cancer project uses HPFS participants to conduct research assessing the impact of light at night on prostate cancer incidence, with follow-up from baseline in 1986 to 2016. Average annual outdoor light at night (exposure) was derived from satellite imagery data from the US Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's Operational Linescan System (maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth Observation Group). Prostate cancer cases (outcome) were self-reported by study participants, and then confirmed by the HPFS team through medical record and pathology report review. The data for this project are arranged in a long format, meaning that there are multiple rows for each subject ID. The various rows correspond to different questionnaire periods. Because the exposure in this dataset, light at night, and several important covariates are time-varying variables, the format of this dataset captures the variation in exposure status by questionnaire period. The outcome variables are incidence of prostate cancer, including incidence of prostate cancer clinical subtypes, such as advanced, aggressive, high- and low-grade prostate cancer. For the published study, please see Chowdhury-Paulino et al.'s 2023 publication in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention entitled, “Association between Outdoor Light at Night and Prostate Cancer in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.” (PMID: 37462694).]]>
Inclusion CriteriaMale veterinarians, dentists, pharmacists, optometrists, osteopath physicians, and podiatrists aged 40 to 75 years at baseline. ]]>
The Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS) began in 1986. At the beginning, Walter Willett (Principal Investigator), Meir Stampfer, and colleagues enlisted 51,529 men in health professions to participate in the study. This group is composed of 29,683 dentists, 4,185 pharmacists, 3,745 optometrists, 2,220 osteopath physicians, 1,600 podiatrists, and 10,098 veterinarians. Among the study participants are 531 African-Americans and 877 Asian-Americans. Every two years, members of the study receive questionnaires with questions about diseases and health-related topics like smoking, physical activity, and medications taken. The questionnaires that ask detailed dietary information are administered in four-year intervals. Biospecimens in the HPFS cohort include blood, DNA, tumor tissue, and toenails.]]>