Reaction time and incident cancer: 25 years of follow-up of study members in the UK Health and Lifestyle Survey.

OBJECTIVES:To investigate the association of reaction time with cancer incidence. METHODS:6900 individuals aged 18 to 94 years who participated in the UK Health and Lifestyle Survey in 1984/1985 and were followed for a cancer registration for 25 years. RESULTS:Disease surveillance gave rise to 1015 cancer events from all sites. In general, there was essentially no clear pattern of association for either simple or choice reaction time with cancer of all sites combined, nor specific malignancies. However, selected associations were found for lung cancer, colorectal cancer and skin cancer. CONCLUSIONS:In the present study, reaction time and its components were not generally related to cancer risk.