ArticleCancer medicine2025
Cancer Incidence Among People With a Prior Hospital Record of Depression in Scotland, 1991-2019: A Cohort Study.
Article in Cancer medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Prevalence of Adult Asthma and History of Screening for Cancer Among US Adults: Results from 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022 National Level Cross-Sectional Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- The epidemiology, etiology, and future prophylactic options for cancers in Mainland China.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveCurrent evidence on the association between depression and cancer risk is conflicting, with little understanding of how associations vary by time period or sociodemographic factors. We aimed to compare cancer incidence in people with versus without a previous hospital admission record for depression, by sociodemographic factors and over time.
methodsWe conducted a cohort study using national linked data in Scotland from 1991 to 2019. We calculated sex-stratified age standardised incidence rates for all cancers, lung, female breast, colorectal and prostate cancer, and used quasi-Poisson regression models to obtain sex-specific estimates of cancer incidence and relative risks of cancer in those with versus without a prior hospital admission record of depression.
resultsThere were 128,654 people with a hospital record of depression with 12,802 incident cancers and 847,656 cancers among those without depression. Age-standardised cancer incidence rates were higher in both males and females with versus without depression. Depression was associated with a 20%-30% increased risk of all cancers combined, a difference that did not vary by sex, age or deprivation and persisted over three decades. Depression was associated with higher risks of lung (RR 1.79, 95% CI 1.70-1.88) and colorectal cancer (RR 1.12, 95% CI 1.05-1.19), but not breast or prostate cancer.
conclusionsWe identified an entrenched disparity in cancer incidence by depression status. Further research should identify underlying mechanisms and inform cancer prevention strategies in this vulnerable group. Meanwhile, health care professionals have a key role to play in optimising physical health care for people with depression.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.