A new report by the American Cancer Society has identified the social, economic and legislative factors that contribute to people’€™s cancer-causing behaviour, and suggests that lawmakers and the private industry need to do more to help make the ‘€œright choices’€ the easier ones to make.

‘€œWith increased efforts toward more fostering of and support for cancer prevention and early detection activities, we can reduce incidence, death and suffering from cancer,” report co-author Vilma Cokkinides said in a cancer society news release.

‘€œThe price and availability of healthy foods, incentives and opportunities for regular physical activity in schools and communities, advertising content, as well as the availability of insurance coverage for screening tests and treatment for tobacco addiction all influence individual choices. Improved collaboration among government agencies, private companies, non-profit organisations, health care providers, policy makers and the American public can lead to continued improvements, and more favourable trends that reduce the risk of death from cancer and other chronic diseases,” Cokkinides stated.

Smoking trends

While there was a modest overall decline in cigarette smoking among adults between 2005 and 2010 (an estimated 21% of men and 17% of women smoked in 2010), decreases did not occur in all subgroups of smokers, the report said.

Among daily smokers, light smoking (less than 10 cigarettes a day) increased from 16% in 2005 to 22% in 2010, while heavy smoking declined from 13% to 8%.

In 2009, 19.5% of high school students were current smokers and 7.3% were frequent smokers. Smoking among high school students did not decrease between 2003 and 2009, but declined significantly among teen student smokers between 2010 and 2011 and among smokers aged 12 to 17 between 2008 and 2010.

Other cancer-causing lifestyle factors that need attention include the increasing obesity rates, and regular screening for cancer, such as mammograms and colonoscopies.

Source: HealthDay News