High Risk of Aging Among Adolescent and Young Adult Survivors of Cancer

Comorbidities such as depression and anxiety and lifestyle factors including smoking and obesity may cause early aging among adolescent and young adult cancer survivors.

The prevalence of frailty, pre-frailty, and comorbidities such as depression and anxiety may increase aging among adolescent and young adult survivors of cancer, reported by a team of researchers.

Lifestyle factors, including smoking and obesity, contributed to a higher risk of frailty, as did delay of care due to lack of health insurance, according to the study published in Journal of Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology (JAYAO), a multidisciplinary peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.

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‘Depression, anxiety, smoking, and obesity may increase aging among adolescent and young adult survivors of cancer.’

Andrew Smitherman, MD and colleagues from Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, coauthored the article entitled "Frailty and Comorbidities Among Survivors of Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer: A Cross-Sectional Examination of a Hospital-Based Survivorship Cohort."

The research team determined the prevalence of specific disorders and of frailty - defined as reduced physiological capacity and decreased the ability to respond to stress - among a group of cancer survivors who were initially diagnosed between 15-39 years of age. Most of the study participants were 30-39 years old.

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Source-Eurekalert

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