Awareness of alcohol as a risk factor for cancer: A population-based cross-sectional study among 3000 Danish men and women

Abstract

Alcohol increases the risk of several cancer types. However, awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer is estimated to be low in Denmark. The objective of this study was to examine awareness of alcohol as a risk factor for cancer in the Danish population. 3000 Danish men and women aged 18–74 years, who are nationally representative participated in a cross-sectional study. Open and closed-ended questions were used to assess unprompted and prompted cancer awareness in relation to the respondents’ demographic profile, alcohol consumption and use of tobacco. Unprompted, 22.2% of respondents were aware of the link between alcohol and cancer, whereas prompted 44.8% were aware of this. When prompted about specific cancer types, 39.5% were aware of the fact that alcohol increases the risk of liver cancer and only 9.6% were aware of the link between alcohol and breast cancer. Being aware of the link between alcohol and cancer was associated with being female, having a higher level of education, living in the Capital Region of Denmark, as well as being a non-smoker. There were no statistical significant associations between awareness of alcohol as a risk factor for cancer and the respondents’ age, marital status and alcohol consumption. Conclusively, the study confirms a rather low public awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer in the Danish population, especially regarding certain cancer types such as breast cancer. There is a continued need to inform the public about the relationship between alcohol and cancer.

Nature and Potential Impact of Alcohol Health Warning Labels: A Scoping Review

“…Table 1 provides an overview of the papers with their aim and methodology. Twothirds (18) of the included papers were published in 2018 or later, indicating an increasing research interest in the topic. All of the research was undertaken in Western countries: most papers reported on research conducted in the UK (nine), Canada (six) and Australia (five).…”

“…A 2018 review of 32 studies found that while awareness of alcohol as a risk factor for cancer varies by country, in most studies, less than half of the respondents correctly identified the alcohol-cancer link [15]. This finding is confirmed in more recent studies [16][17][18], which additionally found that awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer differed by type of cancer (e.g., the link between alcohol and breast cancer tended to be the least well known).…”

Acceptability of Primary Care Counseling and Brief Educational Messages to Increase Awareness about Alcohol and Breast Cancer Risks among Bisexual and Lesbian Women

“…However, among a representative sample of U.S. women aged 15-44, three in four women were unaware of this link [9]. Other studies in the U.S., England, and Denmark have found that more people are aware of the link between alcohol use and other cancers, including liver cancer and esophageal cancer, compared to breast cancer [10][11][12][13].…”

Comprehensive physiopathology and serum metabolomics for the evaluation of the influence mechanism of qi deficiency on xenograft mouse models of liver cancer

“…Liver cancer is a common malignant tumor with high morbidity and mortality [3]. Modern medicine believes that this malignancy is a highly complex and heterogeneous tumor, and its occurrence is a multi-step process involving oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, and multiple cellular signal pathways [4][5][6]. Further research revealed that the occurrence of liver cancer is also closely related to metabolic disorders, that is, the existence of abnormal metabolites can regulate the occurrence and development of liver cancer [7][8].…”